He worked a great variety of jobs: farm hand, laborer, deckhand, lumberjack, railroad worker, factory worker, salesman, 1930-1938; manufacturers' agent, selling advertising signs and automobile components, 1946-1955. He became a full-time writer in 1956. He formed his own film company, John Boland Productions Ltd., in 1964; and served as Chairman, Writers' Summer School, 1958-1960.