/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21770080]

Are there ANY examples of someone, better known for something other than writing, writing a book and it being good? Whether they're an actor, a musician, a politician, a visual artist, whatever. Just someone non-/lit/ writing something that's good.
It seems like an easy task that should have a bunch of examples, but I can't think of a single one

[Anonymous No.21770085]

>better known for other work

[Anonymous No.21770093]

the exorcist was a bestselling book but the movie became his fame. He worked on both projects

[Anonymous No.21770096]

>>21770080
look up polymaths in google.

[Anonymous No.21770098]

Julius Caesar, Cellini, Marcus Aurelius, Leonard Cohen

[Anonymous No.21770099]

Are you including biographies because there are lots of very enjoyable selfbiographies written without ghostwriters though it's usually more for the stories than the actual writing.

If you aren't then Tommi Liimatta has brilliant books despite being better known for his music.

[Anonymous No.21770114]

>>21770098
Leonard Cohen's actually a pretty good answer
I know the OP said "ANY" examples, but honestly I wouldn't count examples pre-20th century when education was more personal and literacy was uncommon. Anyone who could write back in Roman times could write well. In the 20th-21st centuries, semi-lliterate retards can write complete books, and many have

[Anonymouṡ No.21770198]

>>21770080
>a book
I assume you mean fiction? Because obviously there are hundreds of examples of "non-writers" producing good non-fiction works.

>someone, better known for something other than writing
Do you mean, *better known for something else when he wrote the book*, or *better known now*? Because if you write a book that becomes famous, that will probably become what you're remembered for, even if you weren't considered primarily a writer at the time. e.g. Chaucer was a diplomat, Lewis Carroll was a mathematics lecturer, J.R.R.Tolkien was a language professor, etc.

If you mean, better known now, there are some examples, but not that many obvious ones, I agree. One is Benjamin Disraeli. Certainly most famous for being Prime MInister, but he wrote some reasonable novels.

More recently, Norm Macdonald's book is OK, but a bit superficial. More-or-less what you'd expect a (very good) stand-up comic to write.

Didn't Tom Hanks write a book of short stories? I saw a lot of people gushing over it, but that doesn't mean anything.

[Anonymous No.21770217]

It’s kind of a silly question because if, for example, someone was a successful actor but wrote a really good novel, they’d be known to us, being historically downstream, first through their writing since no other pre-modern work can survive. If you imagine that Shakespeare was an actor and not a playwright, we obviously wouldn’t be able to see his acting, nor would we care about it from a historical perspective. We would know him as a writer that was also an actor.

[Anonymousn No.21770218]

I shouldn't have been so disappointed that the Sasha Grey novel was terrible. Of course it was going to be terrible. But the idea that there was the slim, beautiful chance that she was secretly an amazing writer was just too seductive.

[Anonymous No.21770221]

>>21770080
Many autobiographies of artists are great

[Anonymous No.21770223]

>>21770198
>I assume you mean fiction? Because obviously there are hundreds of examples of "non-writers" producing good non-fiction works.
huh?

[Anonymous No.21770230]

>>21770198
>>21770217
the assumption is also "well-known/famous." Tolkien wasn't a well-known world-famous household name back when he was a language professor

[Anonymous No.21770236]

>>21770230
So who is famous really? Politicians and media personalities basically. That’s it. The primary work of the latter would be accessible to the historical record only very recently and before that, their work would’ve been lost to time.

[Anonymous No.21770238]

>>21770218
Niki Flynn is best known for getting whipped in Eastern European dungeons until her buttocks are bleeding and she's actually quite good writer. I think she's done some romance fiction too.

[Anonymous No.21770242]

>>21770236
>Politicians and media personalities basically.
The people mentioned in the OP?

[Anonymouṡ No.21770260]

>>21770230
Yes, that's a fair point.

Another example I just thought of: Dick Francis. He was England's top jockey in the 1950s/60s, then he retired and started writing thriller novels set in the world of racing, and they turned out to be really good, to everyone's surprise. (At least, the first dozen or so. He went off when he got old of course, as most writers do.) He was pretty famous as a jockey.

[Anonymous No.21770265]

>>21770080
David Duchovny is an author. I've never read anything he wrote, but he does have, judging by his education, a huge love of writing.

[Anonymous No.21770267]

>>21770080
Cellini
Casanova
Julius Caesar
Marcus Aurelius
Van Gogh (letters)

[Anonymous No.21770273]

>>21770242
Yes. Did you even read the following statements?

[Anonymous No.21770867]

>>21770080
>>21770217
Actors whose fiction I've read that were good(or at least entertaining): Woody Allen, Ethan Hawke, Lauren Graham, Robert Shaw, Andrew Robinson,

[Anonymous No.21770899]

>>21770080
Chomsky
>>21770867
I was going to say Woody Allen too

[Anonymous No.21771973]

>>21770080
For fiction:
Steve Martin has been published in New Yorker and wrote some decent novels/novellas (certainly no worse than the typical MFA schlock).

For non-fiction:
Ulysses S. Grant wrote an autobiography that has always been well regarded. And Kissinger's books are generally excellent.

[Anonymous No.21771985]

>>21770267
don't be a pseud

[Anonymous No.21772247]

>>21770080
Hampton Hawes' autobiography called "Raise Up Off Me" is regarded as one of the best books about jazz. He was a bebop pianist

[Anonymous No.21772717]

[Anonymous No.21772729]

>>21770080
Bob Ross as a presenter & teacher
John Ashberry, David Lynch (painters first)

[Anonymous No.21772790]

Gorgio de Chirico's Hebdomeros is an interesting book in its own right.

Erik Satie's diary is also quite the read, although i'm not sure diaries are to be included in this thread.