Although he is perhaps better known for The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brother is a lengthy masterpiece—over 1,000 pages in English translation. The story is based on the Hebrew Scriptures's story of Joseph of Egypt—the son of Jacob sold into slavery. In writing the tale, Mann extrapolated many details concerning Egyptian myth and ancient history (as well as the psychology of religious figures) to tell a sweeping tale of this important biblical figure.

This Side of Paradise was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Jack London is known primarily for his adventure novels and short stories, many of which took place in Alaska. All of the remaining authors, except Mark Twain, wrote during the 20th century. Twain is an American 19th century author known for his satirical stories such as Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  The only author on the list who is not American is British author T.S. Eliot, best known for The Once and Future King. Edward Albee is an American playwright whose works include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for The Great Gatsby.

Toni Morrison is known for her works such as Tar Baby and The Bluest Eye. Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple, among other works. Langston Hughes co-wrote Mule Bones with Hurston, but did not write either of the works above.

Born Samuel Clemens in Missouri in 1835, Mark Twain gained prominence in American literary circles after the Civil War for his novels about the frontier in America, notably the connected works The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In his later career, Twain moved to historical fiction with works like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The Prince and the Pauper.

The Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first gained widespread fame for his collection Fairy Tales Told for Children, published in 1837. Among the tales included were "The Little Mermaid," "The Princess and the Pea," and "The Emperor's New Clothes," all of which were largely Andersen's creation.

Charles Dickens is one of the most well-known, well-respected, and prolific authors of the Victorian era in England. However, he had many contemporaries who wrote books nearly as popular as his own. Among these contemporaries is George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, who wrote the lengthy novel Middlemarch.

Herman Melville was an American author from the middle of the nineteenth century, who was well known for writing books about sailing and maritime themes. His most famous works include Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Billy Budd, Typee, and Bartleby, The Scrivener. The Scarlet Letter, a work of historical fiction about Puritan-era Massachusetts, was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Edgar Allen Poe gained fame in the first half of the nineteenth century for using a variety of forms and styles in his literary works. He became famous for a particular blend of horror in his stories, which are all exemplified in the murder story "The Cask of Amontillado," the detective story "The Mystery of Marie Roget," and the supernatural horror story "The Fall of the House of Usher."

Victor Hugo was well known as a poet, essayist, and dramatist, as well as an author of fiction. Hugo's novels often covered a wide range of years, and dealt with grand political and social themes, which has made them well-known and well-loved. Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame have both been adapted to many different formats, from plays to films to animation.