At 11 years old, without telling his family, Jules Verne obtained work as a cabin boy. He boarded a ship headed towards the West Indies partially to run away. In addition, like many of us, he also had a simple desire for a job offering exciting experiences.
His dad? Well, he forced the boy off the ship and told him to travel in his mind.
Travel in his mind did he ever!
Video conferencing. The hologram. The helicopter. Mass biological extinction. And of course – the submarine. With his knowledge of physics, he wrote numerous novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in 80 Days, often predicting future inventions and their consequences.
Trading in Dysfunction for the Unknown
Verne’s written works consistently focus on protagonists leaving dysfunctional societies behind to conduct their own unknown journeys. Meticulous in his research, his foresight regarding the capacity of technology to shrink the world was uncanny.
Removing the barriers of space and time when it came to travel and communication was his game. He took it seriously. Also excellent at conducting critiques on imperialism and criticizing the hierarchies inherent in European social structure, he appealed to the masses.
Jule’s Verne’s First Creative Dollar
“What you do for money you do badly.”– Jules Verne
- The Amount: $0 (pretty unsatisfying answer), worth $0 in today’s money
- The Project: The First Ships of the Mexican Navy (1851). Although a formally published work, he received zero payment.
The Back Story
Jules Verne was 23 when The First Ships of the Mexican Navy was published. It was based on a true story involving ships (not a big surprise).
But before indulging in his imagination, he had to navigate… his dad. Again.
The Lawyer/Stockbroker Days
Before publication, Verne had moved to Paris to become a lawyer. This was at the same time the French Revolution swept the city in 1848. Hence his interest in dysfunctional societies.
After finishing his law degree, he got a job at a theater experimenting with writing several plays. He couldn’t make enough money writing to support himself, however, so he still depended on his father.
Jules Verne quit his theater job when he became married. Aiming high for responsibility, he became a stockbroker. (“Jules Verne the stockbroker” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but it’s an interesting and unexpected fact about him.)
Juggling a family and a career, he wrote in the early mornings, averaging 5 hours a day.
Verne welcomed his first successful novel at the ripe age of 35 with Five Weeks in a Balloon. He was happy to hang up his stockbroker cap and never look back.
“When one has taken root, one puts out branches.” – Jules Verne
Career Relationships: Who Made Who?
Verne developed an intense relationship with his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. (You read that correctly. Jules is a lovely name, and they both shared it.)
Then, power shifted from the publisher to Verne as Verne became more and more popular. Over the years, it was difficult to say who made who. Their relationship became enormously strained by a stressful decision about how to portray Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Verne’s vision of the character, which was heavily influenced by his own complex views on morality and society, clashed with his publisher’s more commercial and conventional expectations. This tension over creative control not only affected their professional dynamic but also led to lasting personal rifts, illustrating the difficulties of balancing artistic integrity with financial pressures.
“Everything great in science and art is simple.” – Jules Verne
Marketing Lessons
There’s a lot to be learned from the timely roll-outs and machine-like marketing plan of the Pierre/Verne empire.
Every time Verne came out with a novel, it was published in three different predictable formats. From appearances in a biweekly education magazine to an unillustrated edition to a deluxe edition with an elaborate cover coinciding not coincidentally with Christmas.
“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make because they lead little by little to the truth.” – Jules Verne, A Journey to the Center of the Earth
Interesting Facts
- Neil Armstrong said Jules Verne worked out how the coast of Florida would be the best location to launch rockets to the moon.
- Although he was French, Jules was captivated by the entrepreneurial spirit of America. He believed the culture of America made it a hub to watch for future inventions involving technology. He was correct.
- Not being French, we only experience the work of Jules Verne via translation. After Agatha Christie, he is the most translated author.
- He thought of himself as a writer of what was possible – not of what was fiction – in regards to science.
- Throughout his 20s, he spent a lot of time in the libraries of Paris. Engineering, geology, geography, astrophysics – all of this nonfiction information infused his traveling imagination and wound up in his novels.
Personal Connection
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is one of the first movies my husband picked out when quarantine started in March, 2020. Our son proceeded to sing the song Whale of a Tale all summer long on our walks. In true toddler style, he demanded to hear all of the verses.
“Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads
A whale of a tale or two
‘Bout the flappin’ fish and the girls I’ve loved
On nights like this with the moon above
A whale of a tale and it’s all true
I swear by my tattoo….”
You can read Verne’s first work, The First Ships of the Mexican Navy, here.
Disclaimer: As always, if you need psychological or financial advice please seek a professional for your specific situation.
Posted in First Creative Dollar, Reading/Writing
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