http://www.simonteakettle.com/famousauthors.htm

A nice list that just points out that the history of self publishing is not exclusively modern (as I mentioned in a previous post) and name drops many famous authors that we as modern readers are highly aware of.  I think it goes to show that we are not as familiar with the history of publishing and how it has worked over time.  Like many models of business the modern novel is a fairly recent invention only becoming heavily popular during the industrial revolution when the technology and the demand lined up perfectly to allow for the occurrence.