What did famous writers of the 20th century do before they became famous all over the world

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many people do not immediately find their own vocation, and on the way to the profession of their dreams, they have to try themselves in different fields. Writers in this case are also no exception. Many famous writers of the twentieth century began their career not at all from writing novels, but in order to provide food for themselves or their families, they had to master a variety of professions.

Vladimir Nabokov

The author of "Lolita" and other famous works, Vladimir Nabokov, became interested in literature and entomology during his school years. The writer was very fond of butterflies, he devoted his scientific works to them and even discovered new species of insects. Vladimir Nabokov, starting in 1920, published 25 articles on entomology, proposed a new classification of one of the species of butterflies, and supervised the collection of butterflies at the museum at Harvard University. And even in the writer's works, mentions of these insects were constantly present. They helped Nabokov to enhance individual scenes and characterize the characters.

Haruki Murakami

Before writing his first book, the author of many best-selling books managed to own his own jazz bar "Peter Cat" in Tokyo. And after Haruki Murakami took up literary work, he hosted a talk show on Tokyo television about Western music and subculture. At the same time, the theme of music passes through the whole life of the Japanese writer as a red line, which, by his own admission, serves as an eternal source of inspiration for him.

Evgeny Zamyatin

The creator of the dystopia "We", which had a significant influence on the writers George Orwell and O. Huxley, received a serious technical education, graduating from the shipbuilding faculty of the Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg, and after another two years taught at the same university. Later he served at shipyards in England, building Russian icebreakers, including being one of the main designers of the St. Alexander Nevsky icebreaker, which was named Lenin after the October Revolution. After returning to Russia in 1917, he devoted himself entirely to literary work. True, his landmark novel "We" was first published in New York in 1925, and was published in his homeland only in 1988. In 1931 he emigrated, and from 1932 he permanently lived in Paris.

Mikhail Sholokhov

The author of "Quiet Don", having tried himself in creativity since his school years, already at the age of 15 began his career as an illiteracy liquidator. Later he served as a clerk at the Revolutionary Committee, then completed tax courses and at one time was a food inspector, and then an assistant accountant, tax inspector, house management worker. When his first feuilleton "Test" was published in "Yunosheskaya Pravda", Mikhail Sholokhov began to actively publish and literary creativity soon became his main profession.

Stephen King

Little Stephen King received his first fee just for writing: his mother encouraged her son's literary work and paid him 25 cents for 4 stories about a rabbit. A little later, the future "king of horrors", together with his brother, took up publishing. David and Steve wrote the materials themselves and mimeographed their Dave's Leaf newspaper and then distributed it to neighbors for 5 cents a copy. During his college years, the writer worked in a weaving factory as a packer, and later moonlighted in a laundry. After graduating from the University of Maine and teaching college courses, he served as an English teacher.

Mikhail Zoshchenko

The writer, whose satirical stories are still popular today, was going to become a lawyer and even studied for a year at the Faculty of Law of the Imperial University in St. Petersburg, but was expelled due to the inability to pay for his studies. It was at that time that he mastered his first profession: in the summer he served as a controller on the railway. In 1914 he entered the Pavlovsk military school and began a military career.

Mikhail Prishvin

The writer studied at the chemical and agronomic department of the Riga Polytechnic, in his student years, together with other students, he went to the Caucasus to fight against pests of vineyards. He did not succeed in graduating from the technical school due to his passion for Marxist ideas, which became the reason for his arrest. Mikhail Prishvin received his diploma in land surveyor already in Germany, then worked at home as an assistant to the scientist-forestry expert V. I. Experienced agronomy . He published his scientific articles, books and monographs in separate editions. And only in 1905 he became a correspondent for several publications at once and became seriously carried away by literary work.

Kir Bulychev

Igor Mozheiko (the real name of the writer) graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages and immediately after receiving his diploma left for Burma, where he served as a translator. After returning to the USSR, he entered graduate school at the Institute of Oriental Studies, defended his Ph. D. and doctoral dissertations, worked as a teacher, specializing in the history and traditions of Burma.

Anatoly Rybakov

The author of "Kortik" and "Bronze Bird" immediately after leaving school got a job as a loader at the Dorogomilovsky chemical plant, later received his license and retrained as a driver. After exile, received on charges of counterrevolutionary propaganda, he worked as chief engineer of the Ryazan Regional Department of Motor Transport, during the Great Patriotic War he served in automobile units, reached Berlin itself already as the head of the car service with the rank of guard engineer-major.

Boris Strugatsky

This writer, who co-authored with his brother many truly fantastic books, after graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University, had an astronomer diploma. As a student, Boris Strugatsky did an internship at the Alma-Ata Observatory, then became a graduate student at the Pulkovo Observatory, and an unfortunate accident prevented him from defending his Ph. D.

Writers and poets, just like everyone else, experience failure in their own lives in different ways. Losing a job for them can turn out to be both the greatest blessing, allowing them to find themselves, and a huge grief, pushing them to vagrancy and drunkenness. However, for many writers, the dismissal later turned into worldwide fame. But the reasons why writers were deprived of their jobs deserve more attention.