Writing Career Paths

How do creative writers get started as creative writers? Or journalists as journalists? Do we ever get to know that? Sometimes we do from their works, and aspiring writers can learn about career paths from them. This is the sixth The Magic Library Card! article in a set about career paths embedded in acclaimed literature. The previous ones addressed biology/environmental science, the law, political science, art & archeology, and engineering. Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” (1872) is, according to his own prefatory (Signet Classic paperback edition of 1962), “a record of several years of variegated vagabondizing” in the rough, westernmost lands of mid 19th century North America. “Variegated vagabondizing” tells you a lot about probably America’s most revered humorist as creative writer. Du…