PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: journalism
American writer
Mark Twain, American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the...
English author
Samuel Johnson, English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters. Johnson once characterized literary biographies...
German philosopher
Karl Marx, revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated...
prime minister of France
Georges Clemenceau, statesman and journalist who was a dominant figure in the French Third Republic and, as premier (1917–20), a major contributor to the Allied victory in World War I and a framer of the...
Anglo-Irish author and clergyman
Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish author, who was the foremost prose satirist in the English language. Besides the celebrated novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726), he wrote such shorter works as A Tale of a Tub (1704)...
American literary critic
Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic and theorist, along with Jacques Derrida one of the two major proponents of deconstruction, a controversial form of philosophical and literary analysis that was...
Irish author
James Joyce, Irish novelist noted for his experimental use of language and exploration of new literary methods in such large works of fiction as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). Joyce, the eldest...
English author
Daniel Defoe, English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) and Moll Flanders (1722). Defoe’s father, James Foe, was a hard-working and fairly prosperous tallow chandler...
British journalist and politician
John Wilkes, outspoken 18th-century journalist and popular London politician who came to be regarded as a victim of persecution and as a champion of liberty because he was repeatedly expelled from Parliament....
Hungarian political leader
Lajos Kossuth, political reformer who inspired and led Hungary’s struggle for independence from Austria. His brief period of power in the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849, however, was ended by Russian...
English author
Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, and dramatist, who, with Richard Steele, was a leading contributor to and guiding spirit of the periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator. His writing skill led to...
French philosopher
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French libertarian socialist and journalist whose doctrines became the basis for later radical and anarchist theory. Proudhon was born into poverty as the son of a feckless cooper...
British explorer
Henry Morton Stanley, British American explorer of central Africa, famous for his rescue of the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone and for his discoveries in and development of the Congo...
French author
Albert Camus, French novelist, essayist, and playwright, best known for such novels as L’Étranger (1942; The Stranger), La Peste (1947; The Plague), and La Chute (1956; The Fall) and for his work in leftist...
British author and politician
Sir Richard Steele, English essayist, dramatist, journalist, and politician, best known as principal author (with Joseph Addison) of the periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator. Steele’s father, an ailing...
British politician
Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, prominent Tory politician in the reign of Queen Anne of England and, later, a major political propagandist in opposition to the Whig Party led by Sir Robert...
British economist and journalist
Walter Bagehot, economist, political analyst, and editor of The Economist who was one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period. His father’s family had been general merchants for...
British journalist
William Cobbett, English popular journalist who played an important political role as a champion of traditional rural England against the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. His father was a...
French politician, physician, and journalist
Jean-Paul Marat, French politician, physician, and journalist, a leader of the radical Montagnard faction during the French Revolution. He was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a young Girondin...
Muslim journalist and politician
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Muslim politician, political agitator, and journalist whose belief in the potency of a revived Islamic civilization in the face of European domination significantly influenced...
American editor, writer, and abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison, American journalistic crusader who published a newspaper, The Liberator (1831–65), and helped lead the successful abolitionist campaign against slavery in the United States. Garrison...
prime minister of United Kingdom
Boris Johnson, American-born British journalist and Conservative Party politician who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in July 2019. He left office in September 2022 after being forced by scandal...
president of El Salvador
Mauricio Funes, Salvadoran television journalist who served as president of El Salvador (2009–14). Funes was educated in Roman Catholic elementary and secondary schools before majoring in communications...
French statesman and historian
Adolphe Thiers, French statesman, journalist, and historian, a founder and the first president (1871–73) of the Third Republic. His historical works include a 10-volume Histoire de la révolution française...
American journalist
Walter Cronkite, American journalist and pioneer of television news programming who became known as “the most trusted man in America.” He was the longtime anchor of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite...
Colombian author
Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 (see Nobel Lecture: “The Solitude of Latin America”),...
German political journalist
Friedrich Gentz, German political journalist, famous for his writings against the principles of the French Revolution and Napoleon and as a confidential adviser of Metternich. Though a commoner, he sometimes...
American journalist
Whittaker Chambers, American journalist, Communist Party member, Soviet agent, and a principal figure in the Alger Hiss case, one of the most publicized espionage incidents of the Cold War. Chambers grew...
British actor and director
Edward Gordon Craig, English actor, theatre director-designer, producer, and theorist who influenced the development of the theatre in the 20th century. Craig was the second child of a liaison between...
Nicaraguan writer
Rubén Darío, influential Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat. As a leader of the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo, which flourished at the end of the 19th century, he revivified...
British-American writer
Christopher Hitchens, British American author, critic, and bon vivant whose trenchant polemics on politics and religion positioned him at the forefront of public intellectual life in the late 20th and...
American newscaster
Dan Rather, American newscaster and author who covered some of the most important historical events of his time, including the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal, during...
German socialist
Wilhelm Liebknecht, German socialist, close associate of Karl Marx, and later cofounder of the German Social Democratic Party. (Read George Bernard Shaw’s 1926 Britannica essay on socialism.) Liebknecht...
American newspaper publisher
William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher who built up the nation’s largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. Hearst was the only son of George Hearst,...
American journalist
Helen Thomas, American journalist, known especially for her coverage of U.S. presidents, who broke through a number of barriers to women reporters and won great respect in her field. Thomas was born to...
American film critic
Roger Ebert, American film critic, perhaps the best known of his profession, who became the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975). Ebert’s journalism career began at the Champaign-Urbana...
Swedish writer and activist
Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer and activist whose posthumously published Millennium series of crime novels brought him international acclaim. Larsson grew up with his maternal grandparents in northern Sweden...
American journalist and pundit
George Will, American journalist and pundit known for espousing political conservatism, particularly in his columns for The Washington Post and Newsweek. Will was, along with a sister, raised in Champaign,...
South African activist, scholar, and journalist
Ruth First, South African activist, scholar, and journalist known for her relentless opposition to South Africa’s discriminatory policy of apartheid. In 1982 she was assassinated while living in exile....
Scottish-born journalist and politician
Michael Gove, Scottish-born journalist and politician who served as education secretary (2010–14) and lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice (2015–16) in the administration of Prime Minister...
Russian writer
Vasily Vasilyevich Rozanov, Russian writer, religious thinker, and journalist, best known for the originality and individuality of his prose works. Rozanov was born into the family of a provincial official...
American educator, publisher, and abolitionist
Mary Ann Shadd, American educator, publisher, and abolitionist who was the first Black female newspaper publisher in North America. She founded The Provincial Freeman in Canada in 1853. Mary Ann Shadd...
American journalist and essayist
Andy Rooney, American journalist and essayist who was best known for his curmudgeonly commentaries (1978–2011) at the end of the television news show 60 Minutes. Rooney was raised in Albany, New York,...
American historian, journalist, and author
Garry Wills, American historian, journalist, and author of provocative books on Roman Catholicism, history, and politics. Wills grew up in Wisconsin and Michigan, where he spent his childhood immersed...
American journalist
Jane Cunningham Croly, English-born American journalist and clubwoman whose popular writings and socially conscious advocacy reflected, in different spheres, her belief that equal rights and economic independence...
American journalist and writer
Agnes Smedley, journalist and writer best known for a series of articles and books centred on her experiences in China during the growth of Chinese communism. Smedley grew up under straitened circumstances....
American television and radio personality
Bill O’Reilly, American conservative political commentator, television and radio personality, and author who was best known for hosting the Fox News Channel (FNC) program The O’Reilly Factor and, prior...
French and American pianist, journalist, and diplomat
Ève Curie, French and American concert pianist, journalist, and diplomat, a daughter of Pierre Curie and Marie Curie. She is best known for writing a biography of her mother, Madame Curie (1937). Ève Curie...
American writer
Sinclair Lewis, American novelist and social critic who punctured American complacency with his broadly drawn, widely popular satirical novels. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first...
American journalist
Nellie Bly, American journalist whose around-the-world race against a fictional record brought her world renown. Elizabeth Cochran (she later added a final “e” to Cochran) received scant formal schooling....
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