Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, was born on 15 September, 1890 in Devon, England. She was an English crime writer of novels and also wrote many plays and short stories including six romances under a different name, Mary Westmacott. She is famous for her detective novels and short crime stories which she wrote without any pseudonym most of which revolved around the characters such as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, etc, which were investigative and acclaimed great success
. Initially, like most other authors, her works were being rejected but later with the publishing agency called The Bodley Head, her first novel, The Mysterious Affairs at Styles was a stepping stone in her literary career. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she is the bestselling novelist of all time after William Shakespeare and the Bible and her works rank third as the most widely published books. According to Index Translationum, she is the most translated author having her books translated into 103 different languages. Her bestselling works include And Then There were None, The Mousetrap, Love from a Stranger, etc.
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon, born on February 11, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, was an Academy Award winning American writer. He was indulged 20 years into TV works after which he took up writing his bestselling novels such as The Rage of Angels, Master of the Game, etc. He is regarded as the seventh bestselling fiction author of all time. Sheldon was a Broadway Stage musical writer and also collaborated with the MGM Studios and Paramount Pictures as a screenplay writer after which he earned fame as a prolific writer and was assigned to write for a Hollywood picture, The Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer. This got him the Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1947. He created, wrote and produced the series of I Dream of Jeannie which was a hit back then. Eventually after that, he started to get inclined towards writing novels and his first book, Naked Face, earned him a nomination for the Edgar Allen Poe Award in the category of ’best first novel’. His second novel, The Other Side of Midnight, reached to #1 in the list of New York Times Bestseller and so did most of his books. Some of them have even made it to films. He wrote a total of 18 novels all of which contains the same genre- crime and suspense with female protagonist and his books have sold over 300 million copies.
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist and lyricist, was born on 24 August 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is one of the most widely read authors of our time and has received numerous international awards, including the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum. Despite his first novel, Hell Archives, being a failure, Coelho did not give up. His pilgrimage to Santiago in 1986 inspired his next novel, The Pilgrimage. After initially struggling to find success, he eventually found a larger publishing agency for his book The Alchemist. This novel went on to become a bestseller in Brazil, selling over 65 million copies and becoming the bestselling book in history. The Alchemist has been translated into 71 languages, earning Coelho a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated book by a living author. Following the success of The Alchemist, Coelho continued to write one book every two years and has sold over 150 million copies in more than 150 countries. To date, he has published 30 books, as well as essays and columns, including works such as The Valkyries, Eleven Minutes, and The Winner Stands Alone.
Nicholas Charles Sparks
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born on 31 December, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an American author, screenwriter and producer and specializes in the romantic genre. Most of his works are fictitious except for one. Till date, he wrote as many as 17 novels all of which are bestsellers and some of them have been promoted to motion pictures such as Message in a Bottle, Save Haven, A Walk to Remember, etc. He has written two unpublished books while still in school, namely, The Passing and The Royal Murders. In 1990, he co-wrote a book called Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-understanding along with Billy Mills and got it published, selling almost 50,000 copies. In later years, he wrote a book, Notebook, which was later found out by a literary agent Theresa Park. She liked it and got it published in 1996, making it the New York Times bestseller list in its first week of release. After his first success, he went on to write other novels such as The Rescue, A Bend in the Road, Dear John, etc. His latest work, The Longest Ride, will be released on 24th September, 2013.
Robin Cook
Dr. Robin Cook is an American physician and a novelist whose main genre is about medicine and public health. He was born on May 4, 1940 in New York City. Many of his works have a blended genre of both thriller and medical writings and so is best known for the genre of medical thriller. His books were featured in the Reader’s Digest and most of his novels have been bestsellers on the New York Times Bestseller List. Cook’s books have anticipated national controversies and in all of his novels, he basically writes about certain medical issues which the public are unaware about. Cook believes that his works are not just entertaining the readers but are actually teaching people something about the issues they are most concerned about. He started writing fiction since 1970 and his books have sold nearly 100 million copies all over. Till date, he has touched issues like organ donation, in-vitro fertilization, genetic engineering, etc. Some of his famous novels like Coma, Sphinx, and Mortal Fear have made their way into the television production featured into movies.
