Genre fiction: What writers do you think people will still be reading 100 years on?

[marque elf]

Charles Dickens wrote genre fiction. So did Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. So did Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. But for every one still being read today, many of their contemporaries have gone out of print and been forgotten. People still read Agatha Christie but John Dickson Carr has fallen by the wayside as has Erle Stanley Gardner.

What 20th century genre writers will still be read in the mid 21st century? Will Louis L'amour survive? How about Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein? Are there any contemporary Romance writers that will still have fans 100 years from now? I have my own opinions but am curious to hear what other dopers think.

[hawthorne]

John Le Carre. Alexander McCall Smith. Kathy Lette. John Mortimer. Vikram Seth and Graham Greene, if you count them as genre writers.

[RealityChuck]

Asimov and Heinlein, probably.

Stephen King, definitely.

Frank Herbert (unless his son ruins everything). Anne McCaffrey.

[jayjay]

I'm probably going to get blasted here, but I was thinking about this very subject today and I really think Piers Anthony (WAIT! WAIT! Let me explain...) will still be read, even if it's only the Incarnations of Immortality books. That series is the best thing he's ever written, and (up to the last book, which feels like it was an afterthought) it's a damn good series.

[Ethilrist]

They'll still be waiting for Jordan to finish the Wheel of Time series.

nitpick: the mid-21st century is only 50 years away, not 100.

50 years from now, I'd add Lois McMaster Bujold, Larry Niven, and Mercedes Lacky.

100 years from now, probably just Niven from my set.

[Exapno Mapcase]

New stuff.

[Annie-Xmas]

John Irving

C.S. Lewis

J. K. Rawlings

[jsgoddess]

Tolkein, Lewis, Christie, Sayers, L'Amour, Rowling, Pratchett, and probably a ton of authors whom I already loathe like Lillian Jackson Braun and Eoin Colfer. Bah.

[NoClueBoy]

From Sci-fi:

Heinlein

Asimov

Clarke

Niven

Herbert


Why? Because their works are just so "big." They had an impact, and are still influencing other writers. Ideas like the Dune political intrigues, the Foundation rebuilding the galaxy, aliens influencing Human evolution, an immense artificial world encircling a star, or Valentine Michael Smith don't easily fade away.

[Krokodil]

Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl and Astrid Lindgren.

John Barth (Is Meta-fiction a genrte?), but not his neighbor James Michener.

Not only will Kipling be remembered, I think he's overdue for a critical re-evaluation and rehabilitation.

But not Salman Rushdie. He'll be remembered as a symbol, not the writer of anything anyone will happily read.