7 ms·
I am curious if there was a single non-commercial writer anywhere in the world that ended up happy. Hemingway drunk himself to dealth, Tolstoy ended up wanderin
by cft 2y ago
I am curious if there was a single non-commercial writer anywhere in the world that ended up happy. Hemingway drunk himself to dealth, Tolstoy ended up wandering barefoot, James Foster Wallace committed suicide, JD Salinger went into exile, Jack Kerouac died at 47 from liver complications of alcoholism
- voisin 2y agoHemingway didn’t drink himself to death. He blew his head off with a shotgun.
- soneca 2y agoMaybe going into exile meant happiness to Salinger. I have the impression that Toni Morrison had a happy later life. Denis Johnson published his important works after quitting drugs and alcohol. I also have the impression that his later life was happy.
- cafard 2y agoTo be fair, Tolstoy made it to 80 and a bit. And Hemingway did not drink himself to death, though I suppose he could have, given the time--but he used a shotgun. I should say that a fair number of respected writers lived long and perhaps happy lives.
- KPGv2 2y agoAnd if the implication is somewhat tinged with "lack of success leads to unhappiness," Hemingway's father blew his own brains out, so it's less that Hemingway was unhappy with his literary results and more genetically predisposed to shooting his head off. (Hemingway was, also, definitionally a commercial writer, as he was literally a war correspondent. I.e., someone writing serves commerce.)
- pinewurst 2y agoHemingway committed suicide after having his brain fried with repeated ECT sessions (and back then, it was far more intense) and quite probably suffering from dementia, either environmental or inherited.
- everybodyknows 2y agoHe was also burdened with chronic physical injuries, incurred in multiple serious accidents over his long life.
- abarker 2y agoAlso he had been under FBI surveillance, which he was apparently aware of.
- krisoft 2y ago> I am curious if there was a single non-commercial writer anywhere in the world that ended up happy. What does "non-commercial" writer mean? Do you mean someone who is not selling their work for money? Or do you mean someone who is not working on advertising?
- Calavar 2y agoI am really confused by "non-commercial" as well. Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were professional writers in the modern sense. Hemingway started off as a newspaper reporter. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a Hollywood screenplay writer.
- krisoft 2y agoYeah. It is a very amorphous constraint. Also what does "ended up happy" mean? Does Victor Hugo count? He was celebrated by the masses, had a long-long and productive life. But he had the misfortune of outliving his spouse, and by all accounts he was quite lonely in his last years. Does that count as "ended up happy"? Or what about Terry Pratchett? As far as I know he died surrounded by his loved ones. But he died due to Alzheimer's disease, which must have been terrifying. But if we can't call someone as successful as Victor Hugo or Terry Pratchett "non-commercial" then maybe someone obscure? Do you need to be published to be a writer? I don't think so. My friend's dad wrote a really funny, and heartfelt story about the history of their family. Never published it, probably nobody will publish it ever. I still count him as a writer. And he died surrounded by friends and family. Does that count as "ended up happy"?
- hluska 2y agoNobody knows your friend’s dad. How are we supposed to guess if he ended up happy? If we use Kerouac and F. Scott Fitzgerald as examples of people who did not end up happy, maybe he did. Or maybe he died totally miserable pining for a woman he met when he was 14. We don’t know and that’s the great mystery of strangers. It doesn’t help your comment much to start off talking about amorphous constraints when you conclude with something even more amorphous. And finally, I’m sure they’re talking about literary fiction.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- KPGv2 2y agoWhat does "non-commercial writer" mean? It seems so amorphous as to be anything. > James Foster Wallace committed suicide David Foster Wallace, and he was certainly a commercial writer. He's actually pretty famous for his commercial writing about tennis in particular. > JD Salinger He went into exile because his debut novel was so fabulously successful that he couldn't take the pressure of a follow-up. This seems like he'd be the very definition of a commercial writer, that his debut novel is extremely commercially successful.
- cxr 2y ago> Hemingway drunk himself to dealth "Drunk up 'til his death", maybe.
- vundercind 2y ago“Happiness writes white.”
- hluska 2y agoI suspect that when you say “non-commercial”, you’re talking about literary fiction. If so, yes there are a lot of tragedies within the field. David Foster Wallace is certainly one, as were Fitzgerald and Kerouac. J.D. Salinger had some interesting personal habits I don’t agree with, but he largely became a recluse to hide from fame. But outside of those examples, you will find a large number of literary fiction writers who actually lived relatively normal lives. William Carlos William was a doctor as well as a writer - he served as Head of Pediatrics at a hospital in New Jersey for almost forty years until he died. Margaret Atwood turns 85 in a couple of weeks - her long term partner recently died but she’s still somewhat active on Twitter sharing information about the situation in Ukraine. And I could keep going. Writers are human and so express the full range of humanity, from dying young via suicide or alcoholism, to having successful medical practices and family lives.
- jb1991 2y agoEspecially in that era, and perhaps also true a bit today, a lot of the famed novelists were recruited to write screenplays, and many of them were extremely unhappy despite the money. So whether or not it’s commercial has nothing to do with it.
- wahnfrieden 2y agoPynchon seems happy
- CBarkleyU 2y agoWhat has the old Pine-Cone been up to these days?
- wahnfrieden 2y agoChilling in Manhattan with his family
- adamc 2y agoEM Forster lived a long life and seems to have found some happiness. Joseph Heller wrote one of the best American novels of the 20th century, and while he had medical issues later in life, I don't think he suffered from hard living. Also, I don't know why you think "non-commercial" matters. I think writers are similar to other people; the outcomes vary. We tend to notice the most atypical cases.
- keiferski 2y agoBorges seemed pretty happy in his old age.
- dwlg00 2y agoFirst one that comes to mind is Kobo Abe
- OisinMoran 2y agoOne of these is not quite like the others...
- lqet 2y agoCormac McCarthy seemed to be quite content with his life.
- Loughla 2y agoWhich is fascinating, considering his subject material.
- m463 2y agoI think troubled people can be vastly creative. Or maybe vice versa.
- escapecharacter 2y agoThe username submitting the post is suspicious, so at least one non-commercial writer must have ended up immortal ;)
- LorenzoGood 2y agoDostoevsky died happily married.
- melagonster 2y agoTolstoy choose the best way he trust.