Guest post: 'The Five Most Underrated Classic Authors' by Dane Cobain

Today I've got a great guest post for you about one of my favourite "genres": classics. So, without any further ado, I'll let today's guest author introduce himself!

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Hi, folks! My name’s Dane Cobain, and I’m the author of No Rest for the Wicked, a supernatural thriller being released on June 11th. I got chatting to Juli and she asked me if I’d be up for writing a guest post – seeing as I’m a huge reader myself, as well as the owner of a book blog, I accepted the challenge.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a ‘classic’ author – whether they have to be dead,for example, and whether anything later than the 1950s and 1960s can be considered a classic. You could argue that the Harry Potter series is a modern classic, for example, even though the two terms are somewhat contradictory. I’m not going to try to answer that today, but I do want to share a few of my favourite ‘classic’ authors, the ones that often get overlooked. Check them out below, and let me know what you think of the choices!

5 – D. H. Lawrence
Lawrence had a real flair for words, and particularly for using simple language to make something sound beautiful. I’ve only read Sons & Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and a collection of poems, but I can see that there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye. Yet he was kind of overshadowed, somewhat, by some of the writers to come before and after him.

Sylvia Plath

4 – Sylvia Plath
Plath was a fantastic writer and poet, and whilst she’s extremely well-regarded by those who are familiar with her work, you can bet that if you stopped people in the street and asked them, not many of them will have read any Plath. It’s a shame, because her premature death robbed us all of any further works!


3 – Ian Fleming
Fleming is the author of the James Bond series, and he’s one of those unfortunate authors who’s seen more as an entertainer than as a serious literary figure. It’s a shame, because he’s one hell of a writer, and yet it feels as though his written work has been overshadowed by the movies. Some of the movies aren’t even based on his books!

2 - Phillip K. Dick
Confession time: I’ve only ever read one Phillip K. Dick novel. That novel is, of course, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the book which Blade Runner is based on. That said, that’s exactly why he’s on my list – even I have neglected him, and from what I’ve heard, the rest of his work is just as good. Definitely one of the authors who I’ll be looking into more, in the future.

1 – Graham Greene
Graham Greene is one of my favourite writers of all time, but I can’t deny that he’s pretty similar to Hemingway, and that Hemingway got all of the glory. Both men were active at around the same time, but Hemingway certainly epitomised the ‘crazy writer’ lifestyle a lot more – after all, Hemingway is known for hunting, wars and shooting himself in the head, while Greene is known for Catholicism, hard facts and living to a reasonably ripe old age. I love them both, but I see them as equals and Greene just doesn’t get mentioned as much.

So there you have it – those are my five most underrated classic authors. What do you think of the list? Have you read any of the authors? And will you be checking any of them out now that you’ve read about them? Let me know what you think with a comment!