Starting out is hard.
I don't know whether starting out was easier or harder in 1939, but I was thinking about it today when reading an article about a zine Bradbury did in 1939 and 1940 being available on Project Gutenberg.
Bradbury is actually one of the authors who made me want to write. I remember reading All Summer in a Day when I was about Margot's age, nine or ten and all but friendless at school. I remember thinking, oh, this is what it feels like to be understood.
I remember wanting to give that feeling to someone else, and so I started writing.
Hail and thank you, Ray Bradbury! I may not be Rowling, but I am who I am because of you.