Every once in a while you run across an article about the rejections great/successful writers got when they were starting out. Here’s one such list which includes names like Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and William Golden:
Though Lord of the Flies was one of my favorite books from high school, it seems some publishers disagreed. One unimpressed agent called the classic “an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.” To date, the book has been required reading in high schools for nearly fifty years, 14.5 million copies have been sold, and Golding’s work has been adapted for film twice.
I’ll admit that I don’t think Ann Rand should be on this list, but I’m not sure I can take any satisfaction in the other names. It all reminds me of hazing, in reverse.
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Great to see your new reincarnation Rosina and to see you active on the web again. You were missed. I have a small pile of rejection letters, none as narky as the one Gertrude Stein received…the one I thought most pathetic was the lazy photocopied page from a ‘hip’ Melbourne agency which just wrote my name in blue ink. Nice and personal.
It’s really awful that a poor economy makes people meaner and ruder to each other, when really a small amount of kindness wouldn’t cost anything and would go a long way.