If you push it back another hundred years or less it's got to be Dickens. I can see Shakespeare, sure, but how many people actually read any of his plays? With Dickens you have still millions of readers, to say nothing of adaptations on TV and in movies, so I think Dickens is still in the public eye over 150 years after his death.
Unfortunately, though I like much of his work, I feel it may be King, as most people seem to think he wrote everything including the Bible.
Then again, the way things are going, who knows if anyone will even still read, or need to, in 100 years, never mind a thousand?
