Ephemerality
I have several hobbies about which I can speak in public. One of them is digging out writers who once had high reputations and now are hardly known at all. I am particularly keen on novelists of the early to mid 20th Century, among whom there were many who deserve more lasting recognition. Some examples: Howard Spring, TF Powys, Ring Lardner (Sr and Jr), Nigel Balchin, Denton Welch, Colin MacInnes, CS Forester (and not just for the Hornblower series), "Saki", Jeffrey Farnol, Rafael Sabatini, Norah Lofts, Erskine Caldwell, Arnold Bennett and, as they say, many more. Now some of these are more forgotten than others but all deserve rehabilitation. Some of them are more serious or more literary than others. Some (I'm looking at you, Rafael Sabatini) were just wonderful escapism that, when I was a kid, could transport me out of the dread boarding school environment in which I was imprisoned. In any case, I owe them all something and I'm trying to pay it back.
I wonder how many of them are known by members of this site?
That is an interersting hobbiy and honorable in its goals. I am afraid that soon, we'll have to widen the inquiry into"who has read books" .