Being well-read has more to do with reading the classics than the more modern authors (which the author does seem to half-acknowledge, though I'm not entirely s

Being well-read has more to do with reading the classics than the more modern authors (which the author does seem to half-acknowledge, though I'm not entirely sure what point he's making). You find out which are the classics as you observe them enduring for decades, and then centuries. Dickens will always be with us. So will Hemingway, I suspect. JK Rowling? Unlikely. The fact that someone like Lionel Trilling is no longer read simply indicates that, no matter the critical acclaim at the time, he was not, in fact, destined to become a classic, imho. And yes, "classic-ness" is not something that an author will know about themselves during their lifetime. History is the judge, and history only judges dead authors.