It's #NationalWritingDay today, so let's look back at a few famous literary rejection letters!
Everyone's a critic...
“An endless nightmare. I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book.'”
Rejection letter quote for War Of The Worlds, a novel by H.G. Wells.
“I don’t dig this one at all.”
From a rejection letter for On The Road, a novel by Jack Kerouac.
“Too radical of a departure from traditional juvenile literature.”
From an initial rejection letter for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, a novel by L. Frank Baum.
“We feel that we don’t know the central character well enough.”
Rejection letter quote for The Catcher In The Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger.
“Hopelessly bogged down and unreadable.”
From a rejection letter for The Left Hand Of Darkness, a novel by Ursula K LeGuin.
“An absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.”
A scathing rejection letter for Lord Of The Flies, a novel by William Golding.
“Apparently the author intends it to be funny - possibly even satire - but it is really not funny on any intellectual level.”
From a rejection letter for Catch-22, a novel by Joseph Heller.
"Your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm.”
A somewhat pedantic rejection letter for Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell.
"First, we must ask, does it have to be a whale?"
Rejection letter quote for Moby Dick, a novel by Herman Melville.
Whatever you do as a writer, stick to it. Success involves knocking on many doors before you decide which one you're going to kick down! #NationalWritingDay
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.