To lose a job and become famous all over the world: Why famous writers were fired

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

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.

Joanne Rowling

Everyone knows the story of how, while writing his famous fairy tale about Harry Potter, the future literary star was in poverty. But the reason for leaving J. K. Rowling is also related to the book.

She worked as a simple secretary at Amnesty International and during her working hours was engaged in writing, and even typing the story about Harry Potter on her work computer. When this was discovered, the girl was immediately fired. However, despite all the trials that the writer had to go through afterwards, her suffering was not in vain. Today she owns a multimillion-dollar fortune and is famous all over the world.

READ ALSO: J. K. Rowling and Neil Murray: "Love is stronger than fear, stronger than death …" >>

Vladimir Vysotsky

It is hard to imagine that in 1963 Vladimir Vysotsky, who was hired by the Theater of Miniatures, was fired two months after being hired. At the same time, the wording recorded in the order was very categorical: "… Complete lack of a sense of humor." Colleagues tried to solicit the reinstatement of the actor in office, but Vysotsky himself refused their help. Surely, he had his own reasons.

A year later, he worked at the Taganka Theater, becoming a very popular and well-known actor. At the same time, Vladimir Vysotsky wrote his very first songs, sounded in films and became famous as a bard.

READ ALSO: "I will, of course, be back …": the image of Vladimir Vysotsky in painting and sculpture >>

Charles Bukowski

The famous writer worked for many years as a simple postman at the Annex Terminal in the USA. Already actively engaged in writing, he continued to come to the service. True, it was too difficult to observe Bukowski's labor discipline due to his excessive passion for alcohol. Too often, Charles Bukowski has ignored work altogether, giving himself extra weekends or, more simply, skipping work.

Colleagues and management became interested in their employee after the publication of the collection of his autobiographical stories "Notes of an Old Goat". In them, the author simply shocked the environment, describing his far from chaste adventures. The management was already practically preparing the order for dismissal, but Charles Bukowski applied for dismissal earlier.

Publisher John Martin has promised to pay the writer $ 100 a month, whether he writes or not. The only condition for the payment of the life annuity was the dismissal of the writer from his job. Bukowski could not refuse this offer.

READ ALSO: Dirty Realism: 13 Cynical Quotes from Charles Bukowski About Women and Relationships >>

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

The German writer, who gained fame as a composer and artist, was forced to receive his own income in the field of jurisprudence, since creativity could not feed him in any way.

Already working as an assessor at the Poznań Regional Court, Hoffman was desperately bored. He drank a lot, wrote music and painted. It was his passion for drawing that played a cruel joke with him. The leadership saw his cartoons, in which almost all members of the high society were presented in a very impartial light. A scandal erupted, then Hoffman miraculously managed to avoid dismissal, but he was transferred to Plock.

During his forced exile, the writer began to study music intensively, trying to brighten up his loneliness. Two years later, the writer went to Warsaw and tried to engage exclusively in creativity. However, it did not bring much income, and in 1816 Hoffmann returned to jurisprudence.

Truman Capote

The reason for the dismissal of Truman Capote from The New Yorker was a conflict with Robert Frost, a famous poet and multiple Pulitzer Prize laureate. Having got to the public readings of the celebrity, the young copyist, who served for two years in the art department of the magazine, allowed himself to defiantly leave the hall where the poet spoke.

Robert Frost, offended to the depths of his soul by such an act, learned the name of the young man and called the magazine's management demanding to fire Truman Capote. The lack of office was the impetus that made the future author of Breakfast at Tiffany's sit down to write his first novel, Summer Cruise.

However, he did not forget the offense, and much later, having already become known, he expressed his opinion about Frost to the owl as the most evil person on the planet.

Venedikt Erofeev

Having graduated from school with a gold medal, Venedikt Erofeev, nevertheless, was expelled from the philological faculty of Moscow State University and from the three pedagogical institutes where he studied. While writing, he worked in a variety of positions, starting with a loader and ending with a VOKHR shooter. In 1957 he was fired from Remstroy, and later from Stroytrest No. 94.

The reason for the dismissal was systematic absenteeism and drunkenness. The future author of the poem "Moscow-Petushki" after the first dismissal and escape from the court, which threatened him because of the denunciation of an antisocial lifestyle, was actually a homeless person for several years.

Hunter Thompson

The author of the novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" from his youth was distinguished by a rebellious character and intolerance to all kinds of restrictions and rules. In this regard, he repeatedly lost his job.

It was for his insubordination that he was fired from the Air Force. He had to leave his post as a sports columnist in Las Vegas after an unsuccessful date with his boss's daughter, during which the boss's car was run over by a tractor.

He was kicked out of The Middletown Daily Record in disgrace after a broken chocolate machine and a fight with a newspaper advertiser who owned a restaurant. He was fired from The Time newspaper in New York with the wording "for insubordination", and the actual reason was a fight with his superiors, which the future writer arranged in a state of intoxication.

The creation of works of genius has always been associated with tremendous mental stress, a kind of "living" of the life collisions of their heroes, the search for inspiration in external and not always useful sources. Writers tried to relax in different ways: some with the help of alcohol, while others were looking for more serious means.