Ray bradbury The Illustrated Man, S is for Space, and October Country...he is one of the masters of the short-story form (along with Somerset Maugham). His novels include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Halloween Tree, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Alistair MacLean -- if you like gripping adventure/thrillers written in high literate style check out Ice Station Zebra, The Black Shrike, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Fear is the Key, and a host of others.
Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask of Amontillado, The Telltale Heart, and many others will leave you spellbound. ...he uses a wonderfully elevated style of language to relate them. And don't miss his poetry either, works such as The Raven and Annabel Lee are a must, Joseph Conrad (well, okay, Shakespeare, too,) Lord Jim, The Heart of Darkness, Typhoon, many others.

H.G. Wells' two-volume The Outline of History.

Herman Hesse -- Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf

Whew! You scared me there Whittman, until you mentioned Herman Hesse, I thought that you might be me. Whew.