No Job, No Money
His series of failures sadly continued for the young and lost Burroughs, where he started to land a number of random jobs. He was at one point a gold dredger, a railroad policeman, an accountant, an office manager, and even a door-to-door salesman selling lightbulbs, candy, and a quack “cure” for things like baldness and alcoholism.
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Burroughs confessed: “I was a total failure.” And his shortcomings weren’t just in the job department. He married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Hulbert, in 1900, but when their first two children were born, he said that he had no job and no money. “I had to pawn Mrs. Burroughs’ jewelry and my watch in order to buy food. I loathed poverty. I got writer’s cramp answering blind ads and wore out my shoes chasing after others.”