Books

Which Author Is More Translated Than Shakespeare?

by Emma Cueto

Which authors' works have reached the most people around world? Well, if you've ever wondered which authors are the most translated, there's an infographic from Visually that can show you. And you might be surprised at some of the names.

Here in the U.S. we don't read a lot of translated works; in fact, only about three percent of the books published each year in the U.S. are translations. But in other countries, translated works are much more common. Part of this is probably due to the fact that Americans are often not the most globally minded, but it's also probably due at least in part to the fact that there are an awful lot of books that are written in English. It's not the world's second most common language for nothing.

And indeed many English-language authors are frequently translated into other languages. From the immortal works of William Shakespeare to modern authors like Stephen King, there are a lot of writers who publish in English on the list of 10 most translated authors, but they also aren't the only ones there by a long-shot.

So which works do get lots of translations? Well, you would think that classics have an edge — after all, the longer a work has been around the more chance there is of it getting updated translations, which increases the total count. And authors who write more books need more translations overall than authors that writer fewer books. Yet in spite of this, there are still authors who aren't what you'd call prolific in the top 10 — the Brothers Grimm for instance are really only known for one thing, after all. And not only are the more modern writers in the top 10, too, but the number one most translated author in the world was writing in the 20th century.

So who is it? Check out the infographic for all the details.