Kipling anyone?
Patrick O’Brian for the great Aubrey-Maturin novels.
I love Kipling. Must read more of him. :)
I think genre fiction has replaced the so-called canon literature as far as avid readership. Maybe because there is still a masculine voice; much of the current "literary" fiction is this mushy or angry feminist garbage. These authors are great stylists, but so distorted they're irritating. I'm a woman, BTW, so my opinion has nothing to do with "dead white male" chauvinism.