Follow Business Insider: You've seen Google's annual lists of trendy search terms, featuring things like  robin williams, world cup, and ebola , but those show only the most unusually popular terms, not the most popular terms overall.
Murasaki Shikibu is the best known writer to emerge from Japan's glorious Heian period. Her novel, The Tale of Genji (Genji-monogatari) is considered to be one of the world's finest and earliest novels. Some argue that Murasaki is the world's first modern novelist.
William Hill Brown (1765-1793) was an American poet, dramatist and novelist who anonymously published The Power of Sympathy, considered to be the first American novel. The son of a prominent clockmaker, Brown received his education at a Boston boy's school. His literary spark and encouragement came from his step-aunt, Catherine Byles.