The phrase "an obscure author" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an author whose work is not widely known or recognized.
Example: "The novel was written by an obscure author whose books have rarely been published."
Alternatives: "a little-known author" or "a lesser-known author."
It gave me pleasure to imagine the Pymian Englishness that must surely pervade such a meeting — the wry conversation, the cups of strong tea, the endless exegesis of an unfairly obscure author — that might in itself be like a scene from one of her books.
Would you be surprised to know that a now obscure author named Richard Halliburton -- who in the 1930's sailed the Mediterranean, scoured Persia, flew a biplane over the Taj Mahal upside down, trekked through Borneo and Timbuktu in search of adventure and romance and then disappeared in the South China Sea -- came up again and again?
It can be a favorite obscure author, the fact that you both randomly grew up ten miles from each other, or the fact that you both speak Japanese.
Those with a passion for a special subject, obscure author or favorite book will, over time, link up its important parts.
The conceit is that this book is a rough translation of a text ("The Teacher of Symmetry") by "an obscure English author," which itself consists mainly of excerpts from another obscure writer, one Urbino Vanoski.
I think I preferred being an obscure cult author.
But perhaps the worst prison memoir of all time was by an obscure Austrian author, who wrote a nasty little treatise called Mein Kampf.
On the other hand, it's been a great career move; should have done it years ago.The literary establishment has seen fit to overlook the books of Iain Banks, but he has long been more than just an "obscure cult author".
The obscure author (pronounced the same, though) is James Branch Cabel.
