Joseph Ritson was an English antiquary who is well known for editing the first scholarly collection of Robin Hood ballads (1795). After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the ideals of the French Revolution. He was also an influential vegetarianism activist. He is also known for his collections of English nursery rhymes, such as "Roses Are Red" and "Little Bo-Peep", in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus, published in London by Joseph Johnson.

Joseph Rodman Drake was an early American poet.

Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.

Josephine Dodge Daskam, Mrs. Selden Bacon was an American writer of great versatility. She is chiefly known as a writer who made the point of having female protagonists.

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary was an American author and arctic explorer. She was the wife of Robert Peary, who claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole.

Josephine Lawrence (1889–1978) was an American novelist and journalist. Her works chronicled the lives of common people, with stories often filled with a large cast of bustling characters, emphasizing the everyday lives of children and the elderly.

Josephine Pollard was an American hymn writer, author and poet.

Josephine Preston Peabody was an American poet and dramatist.

Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh, a Scottish author. Her novel The Daughter of Time was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Princes in the Tower, and named as the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run.

Flavius Josephus was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing The Jewish War, he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.