1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a literary reference book compiled by over one hundred literary critics worldwide and edited by Peter Boxall, Professor of English at Sussex University, with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd.

There is also one pamphlet (A Modest Proposal), one book of collected text (Adjunct: An Undigest), and one graphic novel (Watchmen).

In addition to the English revisions, the work has been published in adapted forms in the languages of the main publishing markets, such as Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, etc., with each adaptation tailored to its cultural context.

While led by a principal director, the work benefits from the contributions of a diverse group of advisors involved in the selection and compilation of reviews.

This group also changes across the different English editions and typically includes a principal person responsible for the version in each language, such as Jennifer Byrne (AU), Peter Ackroyd (DE), José-Carlos Mainer (ES), Göran Hägg (SV), Jean d'Ormesson (FR), Ed van Eeden (NL), Olaf Jensen (NO), and Sadanori Betsumiya (JP).