>>Hunter Thompson ... well he, Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey were probably leaving that “newer” place Huxley was heading off to, in search of other odd ventures.
Well, the book discussions are better here than on DemocraticUndergrond where they would be trumpeting their new favorite book “Drink. Smoke. Occupy.”
I could easily have written in Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, or Arthur C Clarke in the vein of great books that both acted to motivate or align great societal changes and which are literature that will be read for some generations. However the established literary class rarely grants science fiction any cred.
Likewise I could have included Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair. Their works will last on reading lists for many years. Or two novelists I never liked but whose works impacted cultural tides: John Updike and Jacqueline Susann. Their works will not be often read, but summaries of them will be studied. Updike and Susann are Kilgore Trout-esque in that regard.