French language
French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
s (regardless of nationality), by date of birth. For an alphabetical list of writers of French nationality (broken down by genre), see French writers category.
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on King Arthur, Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including ''Erec and Enide'' ...
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...
Eustache Deschamps
Eustache Deschamps (13461406 or 1407) was a French poet, byname Morel, in French "Nightshade".
Life and career
Deschamps was born in Vertus. He received lessons in versification from Guillaume de Machaut and later studied law at Orleans Universi ...
Charles, Duke of Orléans
Charles of Orléans (24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) was Duke of Orléans from 1407, following the murder of his father, Louis I, Duke of Orléans. He was also Duke of Valois, Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise and of Blois, Lord of Coucy, ...
Jean Molinet
Jean Molinet (1435 – 23 August 1507) was a French poet, chronicler, and composer. He is best remembered for his prose translation of '' Roman de la rose''.
Born in Desvres, which is now part of France, he studied in Paris. He entered th ...
Jean Marot
Jean Marot (; Mathieu, near Caen, 1463 – c. 1526) was a French poet of the late 15th and early 16 century and the father of the French Renaissance poet Clément Marot. He is often grouped with the " Grands Rhétoriqueurs". Jean Marot seems ...
François Rabelais
François Rabelais ( , ; ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A Renaissance humanism, humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholars in the Renaissance, Gr ...
Bonaventure des Périers
Bonaventure des Périers (1544) was a French writer.
Biography
He was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the fifteenth century.
The circumstances of his education are sketchy, but it is known that he was attache ...
Étienne Dolet
Étienne Dolet (; 3 August 15093 August 1546) was a French scholar, translation, translator and printer (publisher), printer. He was a controversial figure throughout his lifetime, which was buffeted by the opposing forces of the Renaissance and ...
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin (; ; – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. Bodin lived during the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and wrote against the background of reli ...
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the the essay ...
Pierre de L'Estoile
Pierre de L'Estoile (1546 – 8 October 1611) was a French diarist and collector.
Life
Born in Paris into a middle-class background, Pierre de l'Estoile was tutored by Mathieu Béroalde. He knew Agrippa d'Aubigné. He became a law student at Bou ...
Antoine de Montchrestien
Antoine de Montchrestien (; also ''Montchrétien''; c. 15757 or 8 October 1621) was a French soldier, dramatist, adventurer and economist.
Biography
Montchrestien was born in Falaise, Normandy. Son of an apothecary named Mauchrestien and orphan ...
François le Métel de Boisrobert
François le Métel de Boisrobert (1 August 1592 – 30 March 1662) was a French poet, playwright, and courtier.
Life
He was born in Caen. He trained as a lawyer, later practising for a time in Rouen. He traveled to Paris in 1622 and establishe ...
René Descartes
René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage ...
Jean Rotrou
Jean Rotrou (21 August 1609 – 28 June 1650) was a French poet and tragedian.
Life
Rotrou was born at Dreux, city of the current department of Eure-et-Loir, in Centre-Val de Loire region. He studied at Dreux and at Paris, and, though three ye ...
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld (; 6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, priest, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patr ...
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...
(1621–1695)
*
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
(Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622–1673)
*
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer.
Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...
Paul Pellisson
Paul Pellisson (30 October 1624 – 7 February 1693) was a French author, associated with the Baroque '' Précieuses'' movement.
Pellisson was born in Béziers, of a distinguished Calvinist family. He studied law at Toulouse, and practised at ...
Madame de Sévigné Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution)
Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement ...
Pierre Daniel Huet
P. D. Huetius
Pierre Daniel Huet (; ; 8 February 1630 – 26 January 1721) was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Académie de Physique in Caen (1662–1672) and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 ...
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...
Pierre Bayle
Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. He is best known for his '' Historical and Critical Dictionary'', whose publication began in 1697. Many of the more controversial ideas ...
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Grandee of Spain, GE (; 16 January 16752 March 1755), was a French soldier, diplomat, and memoirist. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne (demolished in 1876 to make way for the Boulevard ...
Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principal so ...
(Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu) (1689–1755)
* Louis Petit de Bachaumont (1690–1771)
*
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, and cosmology, cosmologist. He held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the ''Jardin du Roi'', now ca ...
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...
(1712–1778)
*
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during th ...
(1713–1784)
*
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac ( ; ; 30 September 1714 – 2 August or 3 August 1780) was a French philosopher, epistemologist, and Catholic priest, who studied in such areas as psychology and the philosophy of the mind.
Biography
He was born a ...
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''Encyclopé ...
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Sometimes considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic liber ...
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau (; 9 March 17492 April 1791) was a French writer, orator, statesman and a prominent figure of the early stages of the French Revolution.
A member of the nobility, Mirabeau had been involved in numerous ...
François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Bri ...
François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator and Politician, statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics between the July Revolution, Revolution of 1830 and the Revoluti ...
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (; 27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticism, Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.
Biography
Vigny was born in Loches (a town to wh ...
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( ; ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian who served as President of France from 1871 to 1873. He was the second elected president and the first of the Third French Republic.
Thi ...
(1797–1877)
*
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...
(1798–1857)
*
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright.
His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...
Eugène Sue
Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated '' The Mysteries of Paris'', whi ...
(1804–1857)
*
Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic.
Early life
He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he ...
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
Jules Pizzetta
Jules Pizzetta (1820–1900) was the pseudonym of a French naturalist and author, J. P. Houzé.OCLC, http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/viaf-27199404
Publications
Science
* ''Quinze jours au bord de la mer: flâneries d'un naturaliste'' (1845), ...
(1820–1900)
*
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright.
His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
Édouard Pailleron
Édouard Jules Henri Pailleron (7 September 183419 April 1899) was a French poet and dramatist best known for his play .
Early life
Édouard was born in Paris on 7 September 1834. From a Parisian cultured "bourgeoise" family (upper-middle class ...
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...
Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Go ...
(1858–1915)
*
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim (; or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French Sociology, sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern soci ...
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
Romain Coolus
René Max Weill (25 May 1868 – 9 September 1952), who used the pseudonym Romain Coolus, was a French novelist, dramatist and film scriptwriter.
Biography
Works
Theater
* 1893 : ''Le Ménage Brésile'' (first play), one-act comedy, at ...
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
(1871–1922), ''
In Search of Lost Time
''In Search of Lost Time'' (), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early twen ...
''
*
Paul Valéry
Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher.
In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...
Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, writer, filmmaker, magazine publisher, poet, and typography, typographist closely associated with Dada.
When consid ...
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
Jérôme Carcopino
Jérôme Carcopino (27 June 1881 – 17 March 1970) was a French historian, author, and Nazi collaborator. He was the fifteenth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française, in 1955.
Biography
Carcopino was born at Verneuil-sur-A ...
Jean Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; ; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II.
His wo ...
Sacha Guitry
Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre (aesthetic), boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French ac ...
(1885–1957)
* André Maurois (Emile Herzog) (1885–1967)
*
Fernand Crommelynck
Fernand Crommelynck (19 November 1886 – 17 March 1970) was a Belgian dramatist. His work is known for farces in which commonplace weaknesses are developed into monumental obsessions.
Biography
He was born into a family of actors, the child o ...
François Mauriac
François Charles Mauriac (; ; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
Jean Giono
Jean Giono (30 March 1895 – 8 October 1970) was a French writer who wrote works of fiction mostly set in the Provence region of France.
First period
Jean Giono was born to a family of modest means, his father a cobbler of Piedmontese descent a ...
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...
(1896–1948)
*
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...
Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator.
Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...
Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the Poetic realism, poetic ...
(1900–1977)
* André Chamson (1900–1983)
* André Dhôtel (1900–1991)
* Albert Ayguesparse (1900–1996)
* Julien Green (1900–1998)
* Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999)
* Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900 or 1901–1991)
* Georges Limbour (1900–1970)
* Marcel Sendrail (1900–1976)
* Jacques Bordiot (1900–1983)
* Maurice Féaudierre (1901-1992)
* Jean Meuvret (1901–1971)
* Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1901–1937)
* Jean Prévost (1901–1944)
* Henri Daniel-Rops (Henri Petiot) (1901–1965)
* Lanza del Vasto (1901–1981)
* Charles Lecocq (1901–1922)
* Michel Leiris (1901–1990)
* Suzanne Lilar (1901–1992)
* André Malraux (1901–1976)
* Marcel Aymé (1902–1967)
* Fernand Braudel (1902–1985)
* Marie-Magdeleine Carbet (1902–1996)
* Julien Torma (1902–1933)
* Louise de Vilmorin (1902–1969)
* Vercors (pseudonym for Jean Bruller) (1902–1991)
* Jean Tardieu (1903–1995)
* Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923)
* Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942)
* Jean Follain (1903–1971)
* Georges Simenon (1903–1989)
* Raymond Queneau (1903–1976)
* Marguerite Yourcenar (Marguerite de Crayencour) (1903–1987)
* René Bansard (1904–1971)
* Marie-Anne Desmarest (1904–1973)
* Gilbert Lely (1904–1985)
* Yves Congar (1904–1995)
* Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)
* Maurice Fombeure (1906–1981)
* Charles Exbrayat (1906–1989)
* Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
* René Sédillot (1906–1999)
* Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001)
* Roger Vailland (1907–1965)
* Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos) (1907–1998)
* Violette Leduc (1907–1972)
* Raymond Abellio (Georges Soulès) (1907–1986)
* René Char (1907–1988)
* Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003)
* René Ménil (1907–2004)
* Roger Peyrefitte (1907–2000)
* Roger Gilbert-Lecomte (1907–1943)
* Jacques Roumain (1907–1944)
* René Daumal (1908–1944)
* Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
* Paul Bénichou (1908–2001)
* Robert Merle (1908–2004)
* Simone Weil (1909–1943)
* Stéphane Pizella (1909–1970)
* Jean-Marie Dallet (linguist), Jean-Marie Dallet (1909–1972)
* Anaïs Nin (1909–1977)
* Jean-Fernand Brierre (1909–1993)
* Robert Brasillach (1909–1945)
* André Pieyre de Mandiargues (1909–1991)
* Léo Malet (1909–1996)
1910–1919
* Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)
* Jean-Louis Baghio'o (1910–1994)
* Jean Genet (1910–1986)
* Paul Guth (1910–1997)
* Julien Gracq (Louis Poirier) (1910–2007)
* Emil Cioran (1911–1995)
* Raphaël Tardon (1911–1967)
* André Hardellet (1911–1974)
* René Barjavel (1911–1985)
* Guy des Cars (Guy de Pérusse des Cars) (1911–1993)
* Hervé Bazin (Jean Hervé-Bazin) (1911–1996)
* Jean Cayrol (1911–2005)
* Henri Troyat (Lev Tarassov) (1911–2007)
* André Jardin (1912–1996)
* Pierre Boulle (1912–1994)
* Edmond Jabès (1912–1991)
* Eugène Ionesco (1912–1994)
* Jacques de Bourbon Busset (1912–2001)
* Armand Robin (1912–1961)
* Claude Simon (1913–2005)
* Luc Dietrich (1913–1944)
* Albert Camus (1913–1960)
* Mouloud Feraoun (1913–1962)
* Gilbert Cesbron (1913–1979)
* Armand Lanoux (1913–1983)
* Pierre Daninos (1913–2005)
* Aimé Césaire (1913–2008)
* Félicien Marceau (Louis Carette) (1913–2012)
* Romain Gary (Romain Kacew a/k/a Romain Gary a/k/a Emile Ajar) (1914–1980)
* Béatrix Beck (1914–2008)
* Marguerite Duras (Marguerite Donnadieu) (1914–1996)
*Ahmed Sefrioui (1915–2004)
* Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
* Suzanne Césaire (1915–1966)
* Louis Dollot (1915–1997)
* Joseph Zobel (1915–2006)
* Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, Virgil Gheorghiu (1916–1992)
* Jean-Louis Curtis (Louis Laffitte) (1917–1995)
* Ambroise Yxemerry (1917–2013)
* Pierre Bettencourt (1917–2006)
* Alain Guy (1918–1998)
* Maurice Druon (1918–2009)
* Michel Quoist (1918–1997)
* Jean Venturini (1919–1940)
* Alain Bosquet (Anatole Bisk) (1919–1998)
* Jacques Laurent a/k/a Jacques Laurent-Cely or Cécil Saint-Laurent (1919–2000)
* Michel Déon (1919–2016)
* Robert Pinget (1919–1997)
1920–1929
* Jean Dutourd (1920–2011)
* Jean Lartéguy (1920–2011)
* Jean Madiran (1920–2013)
* Mohammed Dib (1920–2003)
* Boris Vian (1920–1959)
* Françoise d'Eaubonne (1920–2005)
* Albert Memmi (1920–2020)
* Georges Brassens (1921–1981)
* Gérald Neveu (1921–1960)
* André Rogerie (1921–2014)
* Michel Guiomar (1921–2013)
* Jean-Pierre Renouard (1922–2014)
* Antoine Blondin (1922–1990)
* Jean-Charles (1922–2003)
* Jean-Claude Renard (1922–2002)
* Stefan Wul (1922–2003)
* Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008)
* Yves Bonnefoy (1923–2016)
* Roger Foulon (1923–2008)
* Georges Perros (1923–1978)
* Ousmane Sembène (1923–2007)
* Jean Dumont (historian), Jean Dumont (1923–2001)
* Claude Paillat (1924–2001)
* André du Bouchet (1924–2003)
* Salvat Etchart (1924–1985)
* Michel Tournier (1924–2016)
* Philippe Jaccottet (1925–2021)
* Roger Nimier (1925–1962)
* Jean d'Ormesson (1925–2017)
* François Augiéras (1925–1971)
* Alphonse Boudard (1925–2000)
* Roger Giroux (1925–1973)
* Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)
* Jean Robieux (1925–2012)
* Robert Misrahi (1926–2023)
* Yvon Taillandier (1926–2018)
* Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
* Michel Butor (1926–2016)
* Jacques Dupin (1927–2012)
* Gisèle Halimi (1927–2020)
* François Nourissier (1927–2011)
* Robert Fossier (1927–2012)
* Renada-Laura Portet (1927–2021)
* Jacques Rivette (1928–2016)
* André Schwarz-Bart (1928–2006)
* Édouard Glissant (1928–2011)
* Kateb Yacine (1929–1989)
* Nicolas Bouvier (1929–1998)
1930–1939
* Jacques Lafaye (1930–2024)
* Maggi Lidchi-Grassi (1930–...)
* Françoise Mallet-Joris (1930–2016)
* Jacques Ehrmann (1931–1972)
* Fernando Arrabal (1932–...)
* Mongo Beti (1932–2001)
* Hédi Bouraoui (1932–...)
* Claude Pujade-Renaud (1932–...)
* Jacques Roubaud (1932–2024)
* Julienne Salvat (1932–2019)
* Marcelin Pleynet (1933–...)
* Claude Esteban (1935–2006)
* Ágota Kristóf (1935–2011)
* Françoise Sagan (Françoise Quoirez) (1935–2004)
* Daniel Zimmermann (1935–2000)
* Assia Djebar (1936–2015)
* Frankétienne (1936–2025)
* Jean-Edern Hallier (1936–1997)
* Georges Perec (1936–1982)
* Philippe Sollers (1936–2023)
* Alain Grée (1936–2025)
* Anne-Marie Albiach (1937–2012)
* Marc Alyn (1937–...)
* Pierre Billon (writer), Pierre Billon (1937–...)
* Andrée Brunin (1937–1993)
* Hélène Cixous (1937–...)
* Maryse Condé (1937–...)
* Abdelkebir Khatibi (1938–2009)
* Daniel Oster (1938–1999)
* Sandra Jayat (c. 1939–...)
* Michèle Lesbre (1939–...)
* Kenizé Mourad (1939–...)
* Gérard Roubichou (1939–...)
1940–1949
* Annie Ernaux (1940–...)
* Marie-Reine de Jaham (1940-...)
* J.M.G. Le Clézio (1940–...)
* Emmanuel Hocquard (1940–2019)
* Charles Duchaussois (1940–1991)
* Bernard Brizay (1941–...)
* Louis Mélennec (1941–...)
* Jean Daive (1941–...)
* Julia Kristeva (1941–...)
* Jean Marcel (1941–...)
* François Weyergans (1941–2019)
* Josaphat-Robert Large (1942–2017)
* François-Xavier Guerra (1942–2002)
* Wladimir Troubetzkoy (1942–2009)
* Jean Bernabé (1942–2017)
* Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995)
* Guy Olivier Faure (1943–...)
* Yves Manglou (1943–...)
* Eva Joly (1943–...)
* René-Louis Baron (1944–2016)
* Noëlle Châtelet (1944–...)
* Doumbi Fakoly (1944–...)
* Jean-Jacques Greif (1944–...)
* Sergio Kokis (1944–...)
* Daniel Pennac (1944–...)
* Lucien Polastron (1944–...)
* Marc Filloux (1944–1974)
* Alain Guillerm (1944–2005)
* Françoise Chandernagor (1945–...)
* Tony Duvert (1945–2008)
* Bernard Gheur (1945–...)
* Pierre Michon (1945–...)
* Gisèle Bienne (1946–...)
* Renaud Camus (1946–...)
* Djémil Kessous (1946–...)
* Tahar Ben Jelloun (1947–...)
* Daniel Maximin (1947-...)
* Luc Perino (1947–...)
* Michel Étiévent (1947–2021)
* Loïc Le Ribault (1947–2007)
* Jean-Claude Villain (1947–...)
* Élisabeth Vonarburg (1947–...)
* Jean-Pierre Poccioni (1948–...)
* André Rouillé (1948–...)
* Bertrand Le Gendre (1948–...)
* Jean-Paul Goux (1948–...)
* Serge Duigou (1948–...)
* François Leperlier (1949–...)
* Amin Maalouf (1949–...)
* Didier Daeninckx (1949–...)
* Pierre Bergounioux (1949–...)
* Boualem Sansal (1949–...)
1950–present
* Bernard Bonnejean (1950–...)
* Yolande Cohen (1950–...)
* Jean-Paul Dubois (1950–...)
* Moussa Konaté (writer), Moussa Konaté (1951–2013)
* Salim Jay (1951–...)
* Bernard Cottret (1951–2020)
* Jean-Didier Urbain (1951–...)
* Raphaël Confiant (1951–...)
* Carole Achache (1952–2016)
* Pierre-Henri Bunel (1952–...)
* Dan Franck (1952–...)
* Dany Laferrière (1953–...)
* Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (1953–...)
* Nancy Huston (1953–...)
* Patrick Chamoiseau (1953–...)
* François Bon (1953–...)
* Martina Wachendorff (1953–...)
* Édouard Brasey (1954–...)
* Paul Dirmeikis (1954–...)
* Tahar Djaout (1954–1993)
* Margaret Maruani (1954–2022)
* Dai Sijie (1954–...)
* Pascale Roze (1954–...)
* Adelina Yzac (1954–...)
* Jean-Pierre Vallotton (1955–...)
* Alexandra Lapierre (1955–...)
* Caroline Lamarche (1955–...)
* Bertrand Renard (1955–...)
* Joël Henry (journalist), Joël Henry (journalist) (1955–...)
* Renaud Girard (1955–...)
* Yasmina Khadra (1955-...)
* Annie Pietri (1956–...)
* Charles Mopsik (1956–2003)
* Gisèle Pineau (1956–...)
* Jean-Pierre Thiollet (1956–...)
* Khal Torabully (1956–...)
* Fred Vargas (1957-...)
* Hervé Le Tellier (1957–...)
* Youssef Rzouga (1957–...)
* Jean-Philippe Toussaint (1957–...)
* Azouz Begag (1957–...)
* Didier Ottinger (1957–...)
* Olivier Da Lage (1957–...)
* Simon Basinger (1957–...)
* Michel Houellebecq (1958–...)
* Pierre Leroux (author), Pierre Leroux (1958-...)
* Marc-Édouard Nabe (1958–...)
* Olivier Weber (1958–...)
* Denis Robert (1958–...)
* Benjamin Sehene (1959–...)
* Christine Angot (1959–...)
* Frédéric-Yves Jeannet (1959–...)
* Jean-Luc Bitton (1959–...)
* Malek Belarbi (1959–...)
* Nicolas Fiévé (1959–...)
* Bruno Laurioux (1959–...)
* Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (1960–...)
* Simonetta Greggio (1961–...)
* Bernard Werber (1961–...)
* Charles Dantzig (1961–...)
* Philippe Buc (1961–...)
* Valérie Grumelin-Halimi (1961–...)
* Philippe Claudel (1962–...)
* Virginie Caillé-Bastide (1962–...)
* Catherine Cusset (1963–...)
* Beatrice Hammer (1963–...)
* Kevin Bokeili (1963–2014)
* Alexis Jenni (1963–...)
* Bill Pallot (1964–...)
* Nadine Ribault (1964–2021)
* Pierre Cormon (1965–...)
* Ann Scott (French novelist), Ann Scott (1965–...)
* Stéphane Laurent (1966–...)
* Odile Benyahia-Kouider (1966–...)
* Marie Jaffredo (1966–...)
* Alain Mabanckou (1966–...)
* Delphine Gardey (1967–...)
* Mouna Hachim (1967–...)
* Paul-Louis Roubert (1967–...)
* Jonathan Littell (1967–...)
* Amélie Nothomb (1967–...)
* Basile Panurgias (1967–...)
* Johanna Schipper (1967–...)
* Fréderic Neyrat (1968–...)
* Norbert-Bertrand Barbe (1968–...)
* Kim Thúy (1968–...)
* Virginie Despentes (1969–...)
* Louis Emond (1969–...)
* Antoine Bello (1970–...)
* Christophe Honoré (1970–...)
* Fabienne Kanor (1970–...)
* Édouard Tétreau (1970–...)
* Philippe Boisnard (1971–...)
* Yannick Mireur (1971–...)
* Angela Behelle (1971–...)
* Nicolas Ancion (1971–...)
* Luis de Miranda (1971–...)
* Nicolas Bouyssi (1972–...)
* Cristina Rodríguez (journalist), Cristina Rodríguez (1972–...)
* Kilien Stengel (1972–...)
* Roland Michel Tremblay (1972–...)
* Romain Sardou (1974–...)
* Guillaume Musso (1974–...)
* Olivier Adam (1974–...)
* Harold Cobert (1974–...)
* Juliette Rennes (1976–...)
* Lisa Mandel (1977–...)
* Benoît Bringer (1979–...)
* Agnès Martin-Lugand (1979–...)
* Diane Mazloum (1980–...)
* Nahema Hanafi (1983–...)
* Jérémy Marie (1984–...)
* Benjamin Hoffmann (1985–...)
* Oriane Lassus (1987–...)
* Charles Luylier (1989–...)
* Mélissa Da Costa (1990-...)
* Blandine Rinkel (1991-...)
* Soraya Nini (1993–...)
* Chloé Wary (1995–...)
* Estelle Beauchamp (novelist since 1995)
See also
* List of French women writers
* French literature
* Francophone literature
* Lists of list of French-language poets, French-language poets, List of French novelists, French novelists, list of French people, French people, Lists of authors, authors
* Literature of Quebec, Quebec literature
* List of Quebec authors
* List of Belgian women writers
{{DEFAULTSORT:French-language authors
French-language writers,
Lists of writers by language, French language
French-language literature, Authors