Walker Percy

Because of: The Moviegoer (National Book Award), Love in the Ruins, Lost in the Cosmos, many more.

Nationality: American

Catholicity: convert at about 30. Benedictine secular oblate.

Dante Alighieri

Because of: The Divine Comedy

Nationality: Italian

Catholicity: lifelong, observant

John Henry Newman

Because of: Sermons; Apologia Pro Vita Sua; The Idea of the University; Callista; The Dream of Gerontius; highly prolific author in several genres.

Nationality: English

Catholicity: convert from Anglicanism; eventually a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Margery Kempe

Because of: The Book of Margery Kempe (often called the first autobiography in English).

Nationality: English

Catholicity: lifelong; also a mystic.

Rumer Godden

Because of: In This House of Brede, Five for Sorrow Ten for Joy, The Diddakoi

Nationality: English

Catholicity: convert at age 61

George Bernanos

Because of: Diary of a Country Priest, Dialogues of the Carmelites, A Crime

Nationality: French

Catholic status: lifelong observant

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Because of: extraordinary poetry, including The Windhover, Felix Randall, Pied Beauty, The Grandeur of God.

The Sierra Club included his poetry in some of their early books based on the photography of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

Catholic status: Catholic priest