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Dennis, I think you will find that in most cases genres emerge slowly over time. The earliest writers (or artists for other works like music), don't necessarily see themselves as inventing a new genre. Works are then classified into that genre after it is finally recognized as existing.
HG Wells and Jules Verne did not think of their works as being Science Fiction in the same sense that we would today, but they surely are. Nor did E.E. "Doc" Smith think of his Lensman series as being the prototype for Space Opera. The Sword and Sorcery sub-genre was not even given its name until 25 years after its most famous and influential author (Robert E. Howard) was dead; I doubt however that anyone is going to claim that Conan the Barbarian is not a Sword and Sorcery character.
Since I consider Steam Punk that does not involve magic to be a subset of Alternate History, I definitely consider Harrison's book to be Steampunk.
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Bill
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