How many accomplished writers in the last 10 years...

[yudencow]

How many accomplished writers in the last 10 years have studied Literature/English?

And how many didn't but studied Communications/Journalism?

Please write it by percentage (E.g. XX% studied Literature, YY% studied communications and ZZ% didn't study either).

[Nick Capozzoli]

Do you mean writers of poetry, fiction, essays, or "everything literary?" And what is your standard for "accomplished?"

I don't know the answer, but I'd guess the majority of the poets, short-story writers, novelists and playwrights studied literature.

Compare this to a question like: How many accomplished theoretical physicists studied physics/mathematics?
And how many didn't, but studied engineering/mechanics? Or didn't study either?

[JBI]

Michael Chabon is the most successful critically in the US that comes to mind - being educated in creative writing specifically.

[Kyriakos]

Although i am not a known writer (i doubt that at the moment i am even somewhat known outside of literary circles in this country) i did study Literature and Philosophy at University.
Funny thing is, though, that i decided to give up the Literature part of my double-degree, after failing the original written exam for it in the end of the first year. I was asked to take the exam again, but decided (i was 18) that i was just way too proud to actually allow myself to take a second exam! :)

So in the end my BA degree is only in Philosophy...

[yudencow]

I meant by accomplished that they can make a living out of writing.

I want to see if studying Literature/English matters or is just, "the thing that made sense/liked the most". After all, this is art, unlike physics.

So does anyone know even approximately what the percentages are?

[Nick Capozzoli]

I meant by accomplished that they can make a living out of writing.

That's a bit more clear. I still don't know the answer. I tried Googling the question and the only thing that came up was your post...! Maybe you could assemble a list of say 50 to 100 popular writers, search for their bios and find out how many of them studied literature, journalism, or other subjects in college. That would give some sort of estimate.

[Kyriakos]

Maybe it would be better/more realistic to try to find if many of the writers who are famous now (but most of them are dead) had studies related to Literature or something similar ;)

Some did, eg Camus, Sartre (both in philosophy), iirc Pessoa had some literary studies- but i may recall this wrongly- Kafka took some literary classes although his degree was in Law, Dostoevsky was working as a (probably mostly literary) translator in his early days, Hoffmann (E.T.A.) had studied musical theory.

A number of known writers were just too poor to actually attend university, such as Knut Hamsun, and (iirc) Robert Walser.

I would tend to think that actually having a university degree on Literature does not often lead to one making it as a known writer. Some did, but most seem to have had no such studies in a university setting, let alone such studies leading to a degree defined by them.