Robert Anton Wilson and Robert J. Shea both largely launched their literary careers with the publication of Illuminatus! in 1975. I say "largely" because they both had publications in magazines for many years before, a couple of Wilson's Playboy Press books had come out before Illuminatus!, etc. I think it is a fair observation that that Illuminatus! is what made them known to most readers.
Most RAW fans will know that Wilson quit his job at Playboy and embarked on writing many other books, such as Cosmic Trigger 1 (1977) and the Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy (1979-1981). Shea did not leave Playboy, he was pushed out in a layoff, but it forced him to make good on his plan to develop his career as a novelist, and Shike came out in 1981.
Wilson became a "cult" author with a large following, while Shea, while successful, did not become famous, and their receptions when they died illustrate that.
Wilson's death prompted a decent-sized obituary in The New York Times. You can read it here. He also got an obituary article in the Los Angeles Times, e.g., "Robert Anton Wilson, a futurist, philosopher and coauthor of the Illuminatus trilogy, a cult science fiction series about a secret global society, died Jan. 11 at his home in Capitola, Calif. He was 74."
It is listed as a combination of "staff and wire reports," although I don't know what wire service carried the news. (My search of the Associated Press archives did not turn up anything.)
I can't find any evidence that Robert Shea ever got any ink in the The New York Times.
But his did at least get a staff-written obituary in a big hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. Here are the first five paragraphs:
Robert Shea, 61, a writer, was co-author of the fantasy Illuminatus! trilogy books. He also wrote several historical novels and a book, "No Man's Land to Plaza del Lago," about the area along Sheridan Road that buffered Evanston and Wilmette.
A resident of Glencoe, he died Thursday in Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The three volumes in the Illuminatus! series are "Eye in the Pyramid," "The Golden Apple" and "Leviathan." The books, written with Robert Anton Wilson, are satires of various conspiracy theories.
He and his co-author were associate editors of Playboy in the late 1960s before collaborating on the fantasy trilogy, which was first published in 1972.
His historical novels include a volume on medieval Japan, "Shike;" one on medieval Europe, "The Saracen"; and a story of the Blackhawk War in Illinois, "Shaman."
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