These historic authors have helped to inspire modern fantasy and the amazing roleplaying games of the present.

Boy standing on the opened giant book with fantasy light, digital art style, illustration painting — Abode Stock by grandfailure

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Fantasy stories have been inspiring us for generations. A good book takes us out of our daily lives and returns us to a childlike belief in magic and imagination. They may be fanciful journeys full of enchanted creatures, medieval adventures of heroic knights, or terrifying evils that thrill us. In the last 50 years, the fantasy genre has exploded and modern novels fill our bookshelves, but they have their roots in the fantastic works that came before.

These historic authors include some famous writers and their best-selling fantasy novels as well as some that are better known for their work outside of the fantasy genre.

Whether you are looking for ideas for your next RPG campaign or just an escape from the day-to-day, these great fantasy authors of the past are a great place to find inspiration.

1. Thomas Malory

Le Morte D’Arthur, published in 1485

The oldest book on this list, Le Morte D’Arthur (or The Death of Arthur), is about the King Arthur legends. Thomas Malory collected and translated the stories from the original Middle French into English. Almost all Arthurian adaptations have their roots in this work, from art to advertising, movies to music, and much of modern medieval fantasy.

2. Edmund Spenser

The Faire Queen, published in 1590

A contemporary of William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser’s epic poem, The Faerie Queen, was originally planned as a twelve-book series, but the author died having finished only three of them. The story follows the Redcrosse Knight and the knight Arthur as they fight against giants, wizards, and dragons to save his lady.

3. Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels, published in 1726

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist whose work was often centered around his political causes. His best-known book, Gulliver’s Travels or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships was first introduced in 1726. It follows the fantastic journeys of Lemuel Gulliver from the tiny villagers of Lilliput to the Houyhnhmn race of talking horses. The book’s influences extend even off-world as features on the Martian moons of Deimos and Phobos are named after Swift and elements of Gulliver’s adventures.

4. Alfred Lord Tennyson

Idylls of the King , published in 1859

A Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King is a series of twelve poetic stories on Arthurian legends based on Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. While the basic plots are similar, Tennyson enhances them by giving the characters greater depth of emotion and is much more descriptive than the original text.

5. Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865

A contemporary to several other great Victorian-era writers, Lewis Carroll’s fantastic story of Alice and her adventures is considered a children’s classic. It has never been out of print since its publication in 1865. The vorpal blade used to slay the Jabberwocky, in Through the Looking-Glass, shows up in everything from Dungeon and Dragons to video games, including Castlevania, Call of Duty, and League of Legends.

6. George MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin, published in 1872

George MacDonald is often called the founding father of the genre. Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie books are considered to be the first modern fantasy novels. MacDonald had a significant influence on the genre’s authors as well. It was George MacDonald that personally urged his friend Lewis Carroll to send the Alice stories for publication. The Princess and Curdie series has been cited as a major influence by many famous authors, including Tolkien, Barrie, White, and Howard.

7. H. Rider Haggard

King Solomon’s Mines, published in 1885

A contemporary of Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Rider Haggard is most known for his adventure novels. King Solomon’s Mines was the first in the 34 book Allan Quatermain series and marked the creation of the lost world genre that would later inspire Kipling, Conan Doyle, and Burroughs. His other works are a broad range from the Viking fantasy novel Eric Brighteyes, to the romance story of Beatrice, and include nonfiction works on gardening and rural life. His protagonist is often seen as the template for the character of Indiana Jones.

8. H.G. Wells

The Wonderful Visit, published in 1895

Herbert George Wells produced timeless works including The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, which are part of our modern culture. One of his fantasy novels, The Wonderful Visit, is a satirical story about an angel’s visit to Southern England. He separated himself from the contemporary author of Jules Vernes by saying that Verne’s work was about “actual possibilities of invention and discovery.” Whereas, Wells considered his own work to be fantasy, saying his novels were “all fantasies; they do not aim to project a serious possibility; they aim indeed only at the same amount of conviction as one gets in a good gripping dream.” Though ironically, both Verne and Wells are considered by modern scholars to be grandfathers to science fiction.

9. William Morris

The Well at the World’s End, published in 1896

William Morris was a translator of medieval texts before writing his fantasy novels set in the realm of knights and kings. In The Well at the Worlds’ End, the king’s youngest son must save the maiden from the evil King Gandolf. The book so inspired Tolkien that he used the same name for the wizard in the Lord of the Rings series 40 years later.

10. L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz, published in 1900

Lyman Frank Baum's best-known fantasy book is The Wizard of Oz, and the imagery of the yellow brick road and Dorothy’s ruby slippers have become a mainstay in our modern culture. This book series includes 14 books by Baum with tons of fascinating creatures to inspire, from the fierce bear-like Kalidahs to the flying antlered Gumps.

11. E. Nesbit

Five Children and It, published in 1902

Edith Nesbit wrote everything from poetry, horror to children’s fantasy between 1899 and 1925. Her Psammead Trilogy follows five children who discover a grumpy sand-fairy named Psammead that will grant them one wish per day, but the wishes end at sunset. It has been adapted to film, stage, and even a Japanese anime called Onegai! Samia-don

12. Rudyard Kipling

Puck of Pook’s Hill, published in 1906

Rudyard Kipling is best known for The Jungle Book and Kim. His works also include England-based fantasy stories in Puck of Pook’s Hill and Rewards and Fairies. In the books, the elf Puck conjures people both real and imaginary from the past to tell stories to the household's children. One of Kipling’s most famous poems, “If_” was first written in the story of Brother Square-Toes in Rewards and Fairies.

13. J.M. Barrie

Peter Pan and Wendy: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, published in 1911

J.M. Barrie is best known Peter Pan and Wendy, which follows their adventures in the fantasy realm of Neverland. One of the stranger influences of this novel is the girl’s name, Wendy. Before Barrie’s novel, Wendy was a surname or uncommonly used first name for boys. But due to the popularity of his character, Wendy Darling, it has become a common first name for girls. Since its publication in 1911, an estimated 262K babies have been named Wendy in the US alone, making it one of the widest-reaching novels on that alone.

14. Lord Dunsany

The King of Elfland’s Daughter , published in 1924

Under the pen name of Lord Dunsany, Edward Plunkett wrote over ninety books on fantasy, horror, and mystery. His best-known fantasy, The King of Elfland’s Daughter follows the story of Alveric and Lirazel through the enchanted world of Elfland and the human realm of Erl. Dunsany’s work inspired authors including Yeats and Lovecraft and Arthur C. Clarke of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame, called Lord Dunsay “one of the greatest writers of this century.”

15. H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu, published in 1928

First published in Weird Tales in 1928, The Call of Cthulhu is Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s most famous work. According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft’s genres include horror, fantasy, science fiction, and weird fiction. Weird is one way to describe his Cthulhu universe and tales of the Great Old Ones. His universe of cosmic horror inspired a whole genre of Cthulhu mythos. Lovecraft’s creatures have found their way to modern culture in everything from Darkwing Duck cartoons, Metallica songs, video games such as The Witcher and Call of Duty, and tabletop games and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.

16. Robert E. Howard

The Phoenix on the Sword, published in 1932

A close friend of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Ervin Howard got his start in pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s. His first popular character was a Puritan swashbuckler named Solomon Kane, based on the adventure novels of H. Rider Haggar. In 1932, he published The Phoenix on the Sword in Weird Tales, introducing his most famous character, Conan the Barbarian. His sword-swinging Hyborian, has inspired everything from films, comics, role-playing games to video games.

17. J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit or There and Back Again, published in 1937

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is considered by many to be the Grand Daddy of the fantasy genre. His best-known works include The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Silmarillion, along with many others. Tolkien's works have inspired most modern fantasy authors and spawned multiple movies, games, books, art, and even music. Artists from Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Enya to Black Sabbath have produced songs based on Tolkien's books.

18. T. H. White

The Sword in the Stone, published in 1938

Terece Hanbury White found his love of Arthurian legend while writing a college thesis on Le Morte d'Arthur in 1928. In 1938, he published The Sword in the Stone about a young King Arthur, calling it "a preface to Malory." After being rewritten during WWII, the story became a bit darker and became book one of his novel, The Once and Future King. One of the more unique modern references to his work is The Candle in the Wind, the title of the last part of the Arthurian novel about the downfall of Camelot. This title became a modern idiom meaning someone or something vulnerable or fragile and not likely to last. It is fascinating that a book title about the legendary king would later become a memorial song for the very real Princess Diana.

19. Mervyn Peake

Titus Groan, published in 1946

Mervyn Peake was a talented painter and illustrator before becoming an author. His fantasy series, The Gormenghast novels, takes place at gothic Castle Gormenghast, home of pointless ritual and endless intrigue. Starting with Titus Groan, the series has a heavily descriptive style similar to Charles Dickens and has been compared to works by T.S. Elliot and George Orwell by critics. Christopher Paolin, author of Eragon, has cited Peake as one of the major influences for his Inheritance Cycle series.

20. Ruth Stiles Gannett

My Father’s Dragon, published in 1948

While technically literature for younger readers, Ruth Stiles Gannett's work is fun fantasy stories. The Elmer and the Dragon series, starting with My Father's Dragon, is about a boy that runs away to rescue a baby dragon. The first book was made into a Japanese animated film in 1997, and Netflix is slated to release a movie based on the series in 2022.

21. C.S. Lewis

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, published in 1950

Clive Staples Lewis is influential as both an author of fantasy and for his writings on Christianity. His first book in the fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, has made children worldwide look in the back of their closets for the entrance to a magical world. The book has been repeatedly made into film in 1967, 1979, 1988, 2005, and a Netflix version on the Narnia universe is scheduled to debut in late 2022/early 2023.

22. Poul Anderson

The Broken Sword, published in 1954

Poul Anderson started publishing in 1948 in the pulp magazines of the period and became one of the most prolific writers for science fiction and fantasy in modern times. An American born to Scandinavian parents, much of his fantasy work was inspired by Norse mythology. His novel, The Broken Sword, is a classic example set in the Viking age about an elven-fosterling and was considered by many to be a successor to Haggard's Eric Brighteyes.

23. Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1962

Madeleine L'Engle work includes drama, suspense, Christian tales, science fiction, and fantasy. Her best-known work, A Wrinkle in Time, could be considered science fiction and fantasy based on its concepts of space travel and magical characters. It is part of the eight-book Kairos series. It has been adapted to film, stage, opera, and graphic novels.

24. Lloyd Alexander

The Book of Three, published in 1964

Lloyd Alexander's work has been called a younger children's Tolkien. The Book of Three, the first in The Chronicles of Prydain is about Taran, the assistant pig-keeper and his guardians, an old enchanter and a retired soldier. It is heavily influenced by his time in Wales during WWII with Welsh names, scenery, and Celtic mythology. The movie and video game titled The Black Cauldron was a loose adaption of the book.

25. Anne McCaffrey

Weyr Search, published in 1967

Anne McCaffrey started as a pulp writer in the 1950s and introduced the dragons of Pern in the story of Weyr Search in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1967 and later included in the novel, Dragonflight. Her work is an exciting combination of sci-fi and fantasy featuring both space colonization and dragons. The series eventually grew to 24 books and was taken over by her son, Todd McCaffrey, in 2003.

26. Peter Beagle

The Last Unicorn, published in 1968

Starting in 1960, Peter Beagle had a long career as an author of fantasy novels. His best-known work, The Last Unicorn, published in 1968, is influenced by the stories of White and Dunsany. It is the story of a unicorn that journeys to discover what happened to the rest of her race. As one of the youngest authors on this list, Beagle's career in fantasy has spanned from the co-author of the Lord of the Rings 1978 animated movie to writing an episode for Star Trek: Next Generation.

27. Ursula K Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea, published in 1968

An avid reader of the science fiction and fantasy magazines growing up in the 1940s, Ursula K Le Guin introduced the world of Earthsea in The Word of Unbinding in Fantastic in 1964. The first novel in the five-book series, A Wizard of Earthsea, is about a young mage attending the wizarding school on the island of Roke. Many modern fantasy and science fiction authors, including David Mitchel, Margaret Atwood, and Neil Gaiman, have cited Le Guin's influence on their work.

28. Roger Zelazny

Nine Princes in Amber, published in 1970

Like several of the other 21st century authors on this list, Roger Zelazny started his career in the fantasy and science fiction magazines of the 1950s. His best-known series, The Chronicles of Amber takes place in parallel worlds of shadow and the true world of Amber. Both Andrzej Sapkowski, author of The Witcher series, and Neil Gaiman have cited Zelazny’s novel as a significant influence on their work.

29. Mary Stewart

The Crystal Cave, published in 1970

Mary Stewart was a well-known writer with a movie based on her mystery, The Moon-Spinners, in 1964 before moving into the fantasy genre. Initially looking to write a historical novel based on Roman Britain, it transitioned into the story of young Merlin of the Arthurian legends. It was cited by Time in 2020 as one of the top 100 fantasy books of all time.

30. Terry Pratchett

The Carpet People, published in 1971

The most recent author on this list, Terry Pratchett’s first fantasy book, The Carpet People, was published 50 years ago. It follows the Munrung brothers across the flat world of Carpet and has many of the comedic elements later found in his popular Discworld series.

What are your favorite historic fantasy authors?

Author:

Laurie Trueblood is a writer and life coach that enjoys fantasy, science, psychology, and everything nerdy. As the founder of Adventures to Authenticity, her mission is to help others level up and become the best versions of themselves.

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