Source: www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=1425883
True to form, this prolific and idiosyncratic author includes a few virtually unknown titles, such as Manes Sperber’s trilogy Like a Tear in the Ocean and Micheline Marcom’s The Daydreaming Boy
This other list of Vollmann’s favorite books is a little bit better, since it lists 33 authors, from just the last 150 years or so. Vollmann regretted not being able to include earlier writers like Lady Murasaki. However, Vollmann could not have being very honest on his regretting, since the only other pre-19th. Century writer he added when he listed his all-time favorites was Montaigne.
http://biblioklept.org/2011/09/24/william-t-vollmanns-favorite-contemporary-books/