>>> There is little disagreement that he was the greatest writer in history, as you say.
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>Disagree. He is the "greatest" only to those who believe he is the greatest. Who has sampled all the writers that ever were? And how will they be compared across styles and times and other metrics? "The greatest" - a pointless attribution other than as a purely personal, culturally and traditionally subjective opinion.

I agree with the disagreement. For certain definitions of "greatest" this may be true - for instance, as in "greatest among the authors known to those who were educated in an english-speaking country".