Jan Janszoon Struys (1630–1694) was a Dutch explorer whose account of his world travels, The perillous and most unhappy voyages of John Struys, was published in Amsterdam in 1676. Struys was most likely illiterate and the book was produced with the help of a ghostwriter, but the publishers deemed it more profitable to have Struys on the title page as an author. The book indeed became a bestseller, and is also of worth in assessing events and customs outside Western Europe, including Russia and parts Asia, and gives insight into marketing strategies in the publishing industry of the late 17th century.
Jan Józef Lipski was a Polish critic, literature historian, politician and freemason. As a soldier of the Home Army, he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Editor of collected works by Jan Kasprowicz, Benedykt Chmielowski and Gabriela Zapolska.
Jan Józef Szczepański was a Polish writer, reporter, essayist, film scriptwriter and translator, Tatra mountaineer, and traveller. He was the president of the Association of Polish Writers.
Jan Karon is an American novelist who writes for both adults and young readers. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Mitford novels, featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest, and the fictional village of Mitford. Her most recent Mitford novel, To Be Where You Are, was released in September 2017. She has been designated a lay Canon for the Arts in the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy (Illinois) by Keith Ackerman, Episcopal Bishop of Quincy, and in May 2000 she was awarded the Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa by Nashotah House, a theological seminary in Nashotah Wisconsin. {“More from Mitford” Volume 4, Number 10, Fall 2000.} In 2015, she was awarded the Library of Virginia's Literary Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jan Kjærstad is a Norwegian author. Kjærstad is a theology graduate from MF Norwegian School of Theology and the University of Oslo. He has written a string of novels, short stories and essays and was editor of the literary magazine Vinduet. He has received a number of prizes, the most important being the Nordic Council Literature Prize, which he received for the perspectivist trilogy about the TV personality Jonas Wergeland.
Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who wrote in Latin and Polish and established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz and the most important Slavic poet before the 19th century.
Jan Lam was a Polish journalist, writer and comic, as well as a teacher in numerous schools of Galicia. He is probably best remembered as the author of a poem Marsz Sokołów, the anthem of the Sokół, as well as a long-time journalist of the Dziennik Polski daily.
