The initial wave of literary "Steampunk" in my mind was led by Paul DiFilippo but was preceeded by some books by James Blaylock,Tim Powers and KW Jeter. (
Tim Powers (
The Anubis Gates, 1983);
James Blaylock (
Homunculus, 1986); and Jeter (
Morlock Night, 1979, and
Infernal Devices, 1987)). These are all fun books and mostly out of print. I happen to be selling off reading copies of most of these, maybe I'll spam the list...