Everybody has to start somewhere, and everybody has to pay the bills somehow.
Long before they became famous, here are the first jobs of some of literature’s most famous and distinguished figures.
Henry David Thoreau worked in his father’s pencil factory.
Arthur Conan Doyle was an ophthalmologist.
William Faulkner worked as a carpenter, as a clerk in his grandfather’s bank, and as the damndest postmaster the world has ever seen.
Wallace Stevens worked as an executive at an insurance company.
Kurt Vonnegut owned and managed a Saab dealership. He was also General Electric’s PR man.
Jack London was an oyster pirate, a job that seems to be a lot more interesting than it actually is.
Jack Kerouac worked at a gas station.
Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, W. Somerset Maugham, and John Dos Passos were all ambulance drivers during World War One.
Chuck Palahniuk worked as a dishwasher, mechanic, and movie projectionist.
Ken Kesey was a volunteer for a CIA mind control experiment.
Stephen King worked as a high-school janitor.
F. Scott Fitzgerald worked at an advertising agency.
Roald Dahl was a spy during World War Two.
Octavia Butler was a potato chip inspector.
Joseph Heller worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice before enlisting in the US Army Air Corps.
Reblogged this on Cristian Mihai.
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That was a very interesting post! Thank you for researching and sharing 🙂
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My pleasure, Theresa.
And it was a fun post to do the “research” for.
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Thanks for a bit of fun on a Friday morning!
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My pleasure, Liz!
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Gives hope to every would be writer. Thanks Christian, this was fun to read!
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wow, the young hemingway was a cool and good looking dude!
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That was my thought as well!
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Nice listing, but I’m not going to disclose my true current occupation under this pseudonym until I gain a notable literary award (and they can try to take it away from me).
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Interesting jobs, indeed! I bet some of these previous experiences made great fodder for their books.
The one that surprised me the most: Arthur Conan Doyle, Opthamologist!
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He wasn’t very successful though.
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I can imagine 😂
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That one surprised me as well!
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Walt Disney drove an ambulance, where he had drawn cartoon characters on all over the vehicle, to give the riders something to view and ease their pain. I think that was as good a job as any except for playing the Trombone and did not know he could not play one.
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Reblogged this on K Morris – Poet.
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Thank you for the reblog!
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Reblogging this to my readers at sister site Timeless Wisdoms
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Mundane is more the word over weird.
Weird to me is working as an elementary school teacher by day and wearing face paint to look like a demon at night before your band takes off.
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very inspiring, especially for someone who can’t hold a minimum wage job for more than 4 years
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I understood Roald Dahl to be a fighter pilot in WW2, one of the few on the Allied side against the Hun in the Battle of Athens. One of my favourite writers still, in fact—love the Quentin Blake illustrations best.
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Niiiice work! Interesting topic. Thanks for doing the research!
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Thank you!
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I love reading this again and again as it gives me great inspiration. Anand Bose from Kerala
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I want to be a potato chip inspector. Love them1
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