Who are the best writers who became politicians?

History has seen novelists, poets, and playwrights trade their pens for power — some changing nations as dramatically as they changed literature. Where do you stand?

1. 1
   Václav Havel

   Czech playwright and dissident who became the first President of the Czech Republic after leading the Velvet Revolution.
2. 2
   Winston Churchill

   British Prime Minister who was also a prolific historian and author, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
3. 3
   Thomas Jefferson

   Principal author of the Declaration of Independence who became the third President of the United States.
4. 4
   Mario Vargas Llosa

   Peruvian Nobel Prize-winning novelist who ran for president of Peru in 1990 and later served in the Spanish Senate.
5. 5
   Wole Soyinka

   Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning playwright and poet who has been a prominent political voice and activist in Nigeria.
6. 6
   Victor Hugo

   French poet and novelist who served as a senator and was exiled for his political opposition to Napoleon III.
7. 7
   Benjamin Disraeli

   Victorian novelist who became one of the most influential British Prime Ministers of the 19th century.
8. 8
   Barack Obama

   Author of Dreams from My Father who became the 44th President of the United States.
9. 9
   Léopold Sédar Senghor

   Senegalese poet and co-founder of the Négritude movement who became the first President of Senegal.
10. 10
    Pablo Neruda

    Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet who served as a senator and was appointed ambassador to France by Salvador Allende.
11. 11
    Gabriele D'Annunzio

    Italian poet and playwright who became a nationalist political leader and briefly seized the city of Fiume after WWI.
12. 12
    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    Russian Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago whose writings helped expose and undermine the Soviet system.
13. 13
    Al Gore

    Author of Earth in the Balance and An Inconvenient Truth who served as 45th U.S. Vice President and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
14. 14
    Theodore Roosevelt

    Prolific author of over 35 books on history and nature who became the 26th President of the United States.

Comments 1