Even contemporary fame and success is no guarantee of being remembered. I've stumbled across Wikipedia articles on countless authors who were hugely successful

Even contemporary fame and success is no guarantee of being remembered. I've stumbled across Wikipedia articles on countless authors who were hugely successful in the 19th and early 20th century, often publishing dozens of widely-read books, but who are already almost entirely forgotten. I'm sure they imagined they had done enough to secure a personal legacy, but it seems not.