The Greatest Literary Figures With Literally the Greatest Figures

Colson Whitehead, Haruki Murakami, and J.K. Rowling prove that not all writers have to become pale, emaciated shut-ins

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Writers get a bad rap in the looks department: if you spend your time holed up and scribbling away, you must be a scrawny, pasty artist type, mustn't you? Not so! There are a plethora of attractive and well-formed writers, both in history and today, that completely demolish such stereotypes, and whose likenesses we've collected here. Now don't get us wrong -- of course we believe that the stuff in their heads is much more important that the shape of their heads (or the shape of their bodies, for that matter) but that doesn't mean we can't applaud them for excelling in multiple areas. Plus, it's well past time to make literature sexy again, and if writers can replace actors as pinups in our culture of ogling, we'll be happy campers.

We've tried to pick some contemporary authors as well as some more classic choices, and an equal number of men and women, just to be fair to everyone. Click through to see the authors we think have the best literary figures in history, and make sure to tell us your own picks in the comments.

This post originally appeared on Flavorwire, an Atlantic partner site.