How about Stefan Zweig. He was one of the most popular authors in the world in the 1920’s and '30’s, but is completely unknown today. I learned about his existence only because his books were the basis of the recent Wes Anderson movie The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Zweig is relatively well-known. Here’s a New Yorker profile from as late as 2012; here’s yet another one, from earlier this year.
appreciative clap
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Similarly Grace Metalious and Peyton Place. In her case, the phrase ‘Peyton Place’ and the idea it represents is what’s survived in the popular memory, not the book, and even less the author. I wonder how many people under 50 know that the phrase originated as a book title.
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I read a long article about her recently; she was an unholy horror of a person, and perhaps fitting for the writer of such a sensationalistic potboiler fame and fortune was the worst thing that ever happened to her. Rags to riches- penniless frumpy housewife who made millions and managed to die broke and deep in debt and unloved/unmourned by her kids.
At one point Roseanne owned the movie rights to her life story but apparently abandoned it or never got funding. Seeing what she was like at the height of her fame and power I can see why she was interested in her; luckily she got back on tracks before becoming as big a trainwreck.
This isn’t just limited to authors. How many people younger than 40 or 50 would know who Cliff Edwards or The Hoosier Hotshots, or even the Mills Brothers were?
I’m sure *Grendel *is not forgotten; it was just made into an opera a few years back.
James Bond is still a major brand, but I wonder if Ian Fleming has much readership these days. Half of his top secret high tech gadgets would be outdone by a $100 smartphone and an Uzi.
Penguin just republished the entire series of his Bond books a few years ago, including audio editions. You can’t call him “forgotten”. Especially not while the Bond franchise is still running (and keeping his name associated with it) That technology is catching up is irreledvant – the Bond novels either ignore that or show Bond accepting it, depending upon the latest novel’s tack. And the most recent Bond novel came out just last year – William Boyd’s solo.
Do you remember the obsession with Janis Joplin in those books, too? And did you know there was a fourth “Book of Lists” published within the last 10 years or so?
As for Umberto Eco, I forgot about the 2010 book. However, “Foucault’s Pendulum” has been a staple of used bookstores and sales for many years.
Paul De Kruif and John G. Fuller were prominent non-fiction writers - De Kruif at mid-century, Fuller in the 60s, 70s, and 80s - mostly through the Reader’s Digest. Both are largely forgotten now except for De Kruif’s classic “Microbe Hunters”.
The recent Ebola story prompted me to blow the dust off my copy of this book and re-read it.
Foucault’s Pendulum is quite popular with the geeks. “It’s like The DaVinci Code, except that it’s good!”
Umberto Eco has a brand new book coming out in two months. He released a best-seller just four years ago. Having a book knocking around used bookstores qualifies as forgotten now? You know who is forgotten? James Patterson. He hasn’t even released a book this month and it’s almost December.
I love me some Mills Brothers, and I’m 32. Learned about how sweet and cool they were from Van Dyke Parks, himself no spring chicken.
I know someone does, because I recently sold an old hardcover edition of “Giant” on my Amazon store. Not first edition, I probably got $10 for it, but hey, someone wanted it.
In a few decades, people will be brain-teleporting threads like this about Danielle Steel, Stephenie Meyer, John Grisham, and Dan Brown.
Several years ago, I found a book at my local library that included lists of annual New York Times best-sellers from the time the list was initiated in the early 1920s to the then-present. It was fascinating reading, and unfortunately, due to the book’s subject, I have been unable to find that book’s title, and my local reference librarian couldn’t either.
Publishers Weekly lists of bestselling novels in the United States (starting with 1895) are available on Wikipedia, if anyone’s interested.
Depends on your standards I guess. I remember an interview of a Miss American contestant who did not know how many feet were in a yard. There are a lot of people who don’t read at all, I don’t think it’s fair to use them as a standard for judging the fame of authors. Among adults who read, I bet the name “Erle Stanley Gardner” is known.
That’s a trick question! *Whose *yard?
TYVM! 
Maybe it was Publisher’s Weekly after all, and not the NY Times.