Fantasy literature

It is difficult to define the precise 'beginning' of fantasy literature, as stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed since time immemorial. On the whole, the genre, as a distinct type, began to become visible in the Victorian times, in the works of writers such as William Morris, Lord Dunsany and George Macdonald.

Some writers assert that the South African-born, English professor of philology, J. R. R. Tolkien, was seminal to the mass-popularization of the fantasy genre, with his hugely successful publications – The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself, though, was largely informed by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths — particularly Beowulf — but it was after his work that the genre began to receive the moniker, "fantasy".

Preeminent authors in the genre who undertook popular fantasy works after Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s are listed below. The names listed are presented in chronological order, from the earliest published to the latest, along with their most significant works.

Piers Anthony - The Xanth series
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Earthsea series
Terry Brooks - The Shannara series
David Eddings - The Belgariad and The Malloreon
Raymond E. Feist-: The Riftwar saga
Terry Pratchett - The Discworld series
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy
Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series
Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series
Robin Hobb - The Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies
George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire series
Philip Pullman : His Dark Materials trilogy
J. K. Rowling - The Harry Potter series
Dave Duncan - The King's Blades series

Many other, slightly less notable fantasy authors have published under the popular TSR label, usually in the Forgotten Realms sanctum.

In recent years, the ratio of female-to-male authors in a typically-stocked bookstore has skyrocketed, with female authors surpassing the volume of their male counterparts.