Quote Originally Posted by ThiagoMartell View Post
Just wanted to say that Shakespeare doesn't really fit your example, since his importance to both play-writing and the English language as a whole were only noticed far after he died.
Only kind of true. Shakespeare was extremely popular in his own lifetime, but he was somewhat looked down on as an uneducated (at least not formally educated) lower class playwright. Moreover in the years after his death the Elizabethan style fell out of favor for a while and his real genius was not recognized until the romantic period, but his plays remained popular throughout that time, just not revered the way they are now.