Even Dickens and someone like C.s. Forester had tremendous vocabulary in their works
And American authors were no slouches either...Edgar Rice Burroughs, L.Frank Baum,Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, and SO many others!
Grandparents and parents used to read good books to their kiddos/grands, but though some still do, it's WHAT they now read to them is problematic! The old standby classics often are completely ignored!
But you bet that I did NOT ignore these great books and have NEVER talked down to a child either...explaining what the unknown word means, and using good vocabulary words in everyday talking.