7 Writers and the Jobs They Did Before Becoming Famous

We all have jobs, us writers, most of us before we write and after we've published. Most of the writers (some pretty well known) can't support themselves on writing alone. So, they teach at MFA in creative writing programs, in business, in whatever. In America, writing doesn't hold the same weight as it does in other countries. It's just a fact of life.

In Europe and other countries, writers have more cultural and social importance and impact on society. They have government support. They hold dear the literary traditions of their countries, and understand the value of art and literature to their people and to their nations. Countries that value literary fiction for its contributions to societal issues tend to have higher prestige than in the U.S. I've lived abroad and traveled extensively throughout the world, and can vouch for it. Salman Rushdie's ex-wife, Padma Lakshmi, said Rushdie was a renowned figure in India. Here in the U.S., he is also a giant of literature; just imagine the reverence he receives in his home country.

I thought it was neat to see what famous writers did before they became famous. Here are a few of them and their previous jobs:

• Charles Dickens: Worked in a shoe-polish factory at age 12. Dickens was forced to work at Warren's Blacking Factory, a shoe polish factory, because his father was in a debtors' prison. His job was to paste labels onto pots of boot polish for long hours, under grim and humiliating conditions. This traumatic experience deeply affected him and later became a powerful influence on his novels, shaping his empathy for the poor and his critiques of social injustice, most notably in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
  

• Harper Lee: Worked as a reservations clerk for Eastern Airlines. Before writing To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee worked as an airline reservation agent for Eastern Air Lines and BOAC in New York City. Friends gave her a gift of a year's support in 1956, allowing her to leave her job to focus on writing, which resulted in the publication of her famous novel in 1960.

• Stephen King: Was a high school janitor and teacher. In 1971, King was hired as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels, including the anti-war novel Sword in the Darkness, still unpublished. He's published over 65 novels, including Carrie.

  
  

• Octavia Butler: Worked various jobs, including telemarketer and potato chip inspector. Butler struggled to get other stories published. She would rise at two A.M. every morning to write and then went to work in a series of odd jobs, including a telemarketer, potato chip inspector, dishwasher, and warehouse worker. After a series of rejections, Butler shifted gears and tried to write her first novel. That first manuscript was purchased by Doubleday and published in 1976.

• William Faulkner: Worked as a mailman and in a coal factory. After dropping out of the University of Mississippi, he took a series of odd jobs: at a New York City bookstore, as a carpenter in Oxford, and as the Ole Miss postmaster. He resigned from the post office with the declaration: "I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. He wrote books such as The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, and As I Lay Dying.

• Kurt Vonnegut: Worked as a car salesman and at the first Saab dealership in Cape Cod in the 1950s and ‘60s. His most famous book is Slaughterhouse-Five.

• Raymond Chandler: Raymond Chandler worked as an accountant for an oil company in Los Angeles after returning to the U.S. in 1912. He was later fired for drinking and decided to pursue writing, publishing his first short story in 1933.

• Margaret Atwood: Margaret Atwood worked in a coffee shop during her college years, serving as a cashier and waitress before she became famous as an author. Additionally, she has partnered with Balzac's Coffee to create a signature blend of bird-friendly coffee called the Atwood Blend. Her The Handmaid's Tale has blown up in recent times due to the insane political nature of the current administration.

• Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie was a nurse during World War I, working in a temporary hospital and later in a dispensary where she gained extensive knowledge of poisons that she later used in her novels. Her wartime experience also inspired her to start writing her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, during this time. She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, Her books have sold over 2 billion copies worldwide. That's a lot of books.

• Langston Hughes: Langston Hughes worked as a cook at various times throughout his life, including as an assistant cook at Columbia University, a cook in Paris, and in his youth, he cooked rice and hot dogs for himself while living alone in Cleveland. He also held other jobs like laundry hand, busboy, and steward, and his varied life experiences influenced his writing, which captured the lives of everyday Black Americans.  

• George Saunders: Saunders spent some of his early twenties working as a roofer in Chicago, a doorman in Beverly Hills, and a slaughterhouse knuckle-puller. Lincoln in the Bardo won the Booker.

• Tom Clancy: Originally an insurance agent, Clancy launched his literary career in 1984 when his first military thriller novel The Hunt for Red October was published.

Cully Perlman is a novelist, short story writer, blogger, and substantive editor. He can be reached at Cully@novelmasterclass.com

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