The Ladder

Every ballot counted · rankings move with every vote

1. 20F. Scott FitzgeraldWriters17–41652
2. 24Dr. SeussWriters14–31643
3. 81Mark TwainWriters9–11600
4. 105Stephen KingWriters11–31592
5. 123Ernest HemingwayWriters9–21585
6. 150Edgar Allan PoeWriters8–21578
7. 188Ralph Waldo EmersonWriters9–31570
8. 200J.D. SalingerWriters12–51566
9. 230Ralph EllisonWriters11–51557
10. 246Langston HughesWriters8–61554
11. 254Harper LeeWriters12–81552
12. 261Kurt VonnegutWriters10–51550
13. 286Octavia ButlerWriters7–31545
14. 320Ray BradburyWriters7–41539
15. 322Herman MelvilleWriters9–61538
16. 325Michael CrichtonWriters8–51537
17. 346Laura Ingalls WilderWriters6–41533
18. 363Toni MorrisonWriters7–41529
19. 382E. B. WhiteWriters8–71526
20. 388Maya AngelouWriters6–41525
21. 400James BaldwinWriters7–51523
22. 425Alice WalkerWriters7–61520
23. 432Emily DickinsonWriters8–61519
24. 438T. S. EliotWriters8–61517
25. 488Walt WhitmanWriters5–51508
26. 490Henry David ThoreauWriters6–61507
27. 495John SteinbeckWriters6–51507
28. 507William FaulknerWriters7–81505
29. 583Isaac AsimovWriters5–51489
30. 598Sylvia PlathWriters7–71486
31. 667Truman CapoteWriters4–71473
32. 694Lin-Manuel MirandaWriters5–81468
33. 697Washington IrvingWriters6–91467
34. 706Tom ClancyWriters7–81465
35. 710Philip K. DickWriters8–111465
36. 711Nathaniel HawthorneWriters5–71465
37. 714Hunter S. ThompsonWriters4–71464
38. 716Robert FrostWriters4–71464
39. 721Charles BukowskiWriters6–81462
40. 723Jack LondonWriters5–71461
41. 731Joan DidionWriters7–101460
42. 738Jack KerouacWriters5–71458
43. 774Cormac McCarthyWriters3–71451
44. 792Arthur MillerWriters4–91447
45. 798Noah WebsterWriters6–111444
46. 804Edith WhartonWriters6–101443
47. 805O. HenryWriters3–71443
48. 814Joseph HellerWriters7–111441
49. 820Upton SinclairWriters6–121439
50. 822Louisa May AlcottWriters7–131439
51. 859Norman MailerWriters3–91432
52. 880Tennessee WilliamsWriters2–81427
53. 881Shel SilversteinWriters5–121427
54. 895Nora EphronWriters3–111423
55. 898Noam ChomskyWriters2–81423
56. 901Tom WolfeWriters4–91423
57. 911Richard WrightWriters4–121420
58. 915Allen GinsbergWriters6–141419
59. 940William F. Buckley Jr.Writers2–81413
60. 952Gore VidalWriters4–131409
61. 960Willa CatherWriters3–111405
62. 977John GrishamWriters2–101401
63. 979David Foster WallaceWriters6–141399
64. 997Thomas PynchonWriters7–191389
65. 1000Amanda GormanWriters2–121388
66. 1016Zora Neale HurstonWriters1–131377
67. 1026Eugene O'NeillWriters2–121367
68. 1036Ambrose BierceWriters1–111360
69. 1042Ursula K. Le GuinWriters2–141352