have there ever been any really good young writers?

Question

im talking about younger than 22 or so, seems to me that you sort of have to live a bit of life before you can be an intriguing writer, but i could be wrong, seems like the case most of the time though wouldnt you say?

Answer 1

Perhaps it's because we live longer now that our accomplishments seem to come later in life, but there do seem to have been younger literary geniuses in the past. Then again, it's easier to find gold nuggets in a stream of 2000 years than in the trickle of the last century.

Mary Shelley was 19 when she wrote Frankenstein. Forget what you know about the movies, if you've ever read the book, you'll know that it truly is great literature. (Incidentally, she wrote it as part of a bet that she made with her husband, poet Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron, to see who could write the best book in a certain time frame. I think it's safe to say that she won that one.)

Victor Hugo also gained fame when he was young. From his Wikipedia article: "The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses) was published in 1824, when Hugo was only twenty two years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed two years later in 1826 (Odes et Ballades) that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song."

There are quite a few other authors from past centuries who began young and found acclaim young.

More recently, I believe Christopher Paolini, author of the Eragon series began writing the first of the series when he was 15 and finished when he was 17.

On the topic of other young accomplishments, remember that Beethoven was considered a virtuoso and national treasure of Austria before he was 22, and that several of the founding fathers of the America were in their 20s when they drafted the Constitution of what is now, 200 years later, the most powerful country in the world. That gives a whole new perspective on what a young mind can accomplish.

All that said - there are no limits to the things we can accomplish at any age. If you're under 22 and you want to write - write. Your talent is certainly not limited by your age. But the wonderful thing is, it keeps getting better with age. Well, not if you're a gymnast or a football player. But for us writers, our wisdom enhances our natural talent. So if you're a good writer now and you keep writing, you'll be a great writer later. And if you're a great writer now (like Victor Hugo was at 22), you might just write something of enduring greatness like Les Mis later in life (like Hugo did when he was 60).

May you flourish now and keep on flourishing with age and wisdom!
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Answer 2

I couldn't find a list of writers aged 22 and under, but here is a list of those who are 35 and younger. (That seems young to me as I am a 56 year old artist/writer.) I retrieved the list from Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors. I started to research the exact ages, but realized it would take too long. I do know they are all great writers who will get even better with time. As a seasoned writer, I can tell you I did some of my best work in my teens and 20s. Good luck.

Granta Announces list of the 21 Best Writers Under 35
Daniel Alarcon
Judy Budnitz
Kevin Brockmeier
Christopher Coake
Anthony Doerr
Jonathan Safran Foer
Nell Freudenberger
Olga Grushin
Dara Horn
Gabe Hudson
Uzodinma Iweala
Nicole Krauss
Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Yiyun Li
Maile Meloy
ZZ Packer
Jess Row
Karen Russell
Akhil Sharma
Gary Shteyngart
John Wray

Answer 3

As you can see by the answers already here, there were any number of authors who wrote before they were 22. I don't believe that imagination has any definitive age of maturity. It doesn't necessarily follow that a writer needs to see more of life to be an intriguing writer, though a wider knowledge and experience gives more scope for the imagination. Personally, I believe there is such a thing as innate, God-given talent. Even given that, a writer must work to develop his style. I've noticed that quite a few of the authors whose books are considered classics have started out by writing short stories and/or poems and that might be considered practice, practice, practice.

-Jane Austen was 21 when she wrote "First Impressions" which would later be revised & be named "Pride and Prejudice" and as a child wrote her so-called Juvenilia such as "Love and Friendship" and "Frederic & Elfrida" and many other short stories
-The Bronte sisters wrote a collection of Juvenilia as children
-Louisa May Alcott was writing short stories as a teen, her first poem "Sunlight" was published when she was 19 or 20 and her first book "Flower Fables" when she was 21 or 22
-Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" by the time she was 19 (and 21 when published)
A bit older, but Charles Dickens was 24 when he began "The Pickwick Papers" or "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" and finished at 25

Answer 4

French Symoblist poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote all of his poems from 16 to 19 years old in the 19th Century. Today he is considered one of French's most respected poets along with Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, and Guilliame Apollonaire.

Answer 5

Isaac Asimov, Fred Pohl, Robert Heinlein all had stories published before age 20.

S. E. Hinton was 16 when she wrote Outsiders. Christopher Paolini was 16 when he wrote Eragon.

Answer 6

Adora Svitak. Author of over 300 short stories. Seven years old.

Answer 7

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Answer 8

Carson McCullers was the toast of Paris in her early 20s for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Answer 9

Mary Shelley was 21 when the book Frankenstein was published; she started to write it when she was 18.

Answer 10

William Cullen Bryant wrote his best poem when he was 16 or 17.