I don't understand why 今から is even in this sentence.

[NileCat]

I'm not entirely sure of the implication of your final paragraph, so this may be not be relevant, but just in case there is any misunderstanding, this use of 今から is completely normal and not stylistically awkward in any way.

Which means my English version was not clear enough, I'm afraid. What I wanted to say is,
今から130年以上前 --- high quality --- This author is good.
(130年以上前 --- low quality. In between wrong and ok in this context )

Endo, Mike, JaySee...Everyone is correct in a sense. But their opinions look like contradicting.
The only way to explain the logic I thought was my roundabout crap.

[Mike Cash]

Everything centers on the nature of "ago" in English versus the nature of 前 in Japanese.

In English, "ago" always indicates "from now", making the inclusion of "from now" redundant and stylistically incredibly awkward.

前 doesn't have that problem, and including 今から merely serves to clarify the sentence. Clear writing is preferable to ambiguous writing.

[space_bubble]

I'm not entirely sure of the implication of your final paragraph, so this may be not be relevant, but just in case there is any misunderstanding, this use of 今から is completely normal and not stylistically awkward in any way.

It's not a failing of any sort on the part of readers of my posts, it's my penchant for getting tongue-tied, so to speak, at times when my posts get too wordy, and I begin to talk (actually, write) unclearly. My apology for any confusion.

I see why 今から is in the sentence, formally, at least. I got the gist of this from the others, and with your support I'm doubly sure of it's use in the sentence. This 今から was a specific, particular bit of text that I'll not retain in long-term memory - I couldn't at this point go forth and confidently and readily use in speech as naturally and effortlessly as I do when using English - but the grammar point I learned contributes to what will eventually be the vastly fuller understanding I'll have of the language at some point in the future.

Thanks.

[Mike Cash]

And you learned a tiny bit about English that you have always really known, but perhaps never thought about.

And you also learned that sometimes when you get hung up on a Japanese sentence to stop and give thought to the possibility that it is the previously unconsidered aspects of English which are causing the problem.