Yes, and Moby Dick's critical reception was disastrous, The Bell Jar was ignored, and all that proves...what, exactly? On the other hand, Don Quixote was popular enough in its day to inspire fanfic, New Yorkers waited on the docks to get their hands on the latest installments of Dickens's novels, and Pride and Prejudice, Adam Bede, The Grapes of Wrath, A Farewell to Arms, Catch-22 and Their Eyes Were Watching God were critical and popular successes.

A distressing number of people have this idea that truly great writing always languishes in obscurity in the author's lifetime because only a few people can appreciate its greatness, while stuff that's popular is all on the level of The DaVinci Code and Twilight. Nope.