Rejection is one of the topics that gets revisited frequently in writer's forums and blog threads. With that in mind, I found this NPR story, about some of the famous writers rejected by Alfred A. Knopf, very interesting. The radio spot mentions now-classic works such as George Orwell's Animal Farm ("impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.") and Jack Kerouac's On the Road ("a badly misdirected talent" and "huge, sprawling, and inconclusive novel"). Sylvia Plath and Anne Frank (submitted by relatives or friends, I'm guessing?) are also mentioned as being among Knopf's rejects.
(As a side note, something I found interesting about this little radio spot is that apparently, against all rules of English pronunciation, "Knopf" is not pronounced with a silent "k". In fact, none of the letters in this publisher's name are silent. Repeat after me: "Kin-op-ffffff.")
Stories like these are always encouraging to writers, because it helps us weather those rejection notices some of us receive by the dozens. Maybe we're not the next George Orwell or Jack Kerouac — but if these literary geniuses received such scathing rejection notices, maybe the form rejections we receive don't necessarily reflect on our writing abilities, after all.
Sponsored
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sponsored
Popular Posts
-
I try to keep this blog mostly writing-related, but every once in a while I see something in the news that I just have to comment about. Tod...
-
This is a very long post, but the information contained in it is potentially very important, so please bear with me. On Monday I read a very...
-
Please see the bottom of this post for an update. Quite recently, I blogged about an email I received from Rob Palmer, the president of GoF...
-
Please scroll down for an update on this post. My posts on Freelance Work Exchange ( now GoFreelance.com ) have always attracted a lot of h...
-
Several months ago, Rob Palmer emailed me regarding my blog posts regarding GoFreelance.com, formerly known as Freelance Work Exchange or Fr...
-
Not long ago, I was browsing on Facebook when I saw an ad for a software that automagically generates blog posts for you. This was news to m...
-
Interesting title for a meme. Anyway, I've been tagged thanks to The Insane Writer . I was confused by the rules of the post, so I trace...
-
When I was writing an article today, I used the word "agreeance," and Word automatically flagged it. I was flabbergasted. Althou...
-
I have a love-hate relationship with productivity. I love to get things done, but I'm also a horrible procrastinator. I'm constant...
-
If you have signed up for the Muse Online Writing Conference , don't forget that your event choices are due by Tuesday, September 25th. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment