Literary tastes change over time, but it always feels weird to think about authors who used to be widely read, but no longer are. Most prominently in my mind is Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who won the Noble Prize in literature but who no one in Norway really reads anymore. His contemporary and rival, Henrik Ibsen, is still hugely popular - even internationally.
I think it's mostly to do with Bjørnson's emphasis on national romanticism, which isn't that popular anymore. If we are to compare him with Ibsen, he wasn't as socially transgressive as him, so there is not the same "ahead of his time" feeling with Bjørnson as there is with Ibsen. And I'm part of this too, I have not read a single full length work by Bjørnson! I did however, really enjoy a silent film based on his novel (or it might have been a play) Synnøve Solbakken, so I will definitely read that, and eventually his other works.
I didn't read any of his poetry in high school, and now that they've changed the curriculum to be more flexible in terms of what books teachers assign, there's not any chance he'll have a comeback soon. But, my opinion on that is a different matter entirely.
You can be instrumental in the formation of a national identity and recieve prestigious awards, but once people are comfortable with and understand their national identity, maybe they don't need it reinforced in this internal way. In Norway today, we are much more obsessed with how people from other countries view us.