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
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Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 digital watches of distinction!
After all, why wear a Rolex nowadays?
At #10: the 1973 Seiko 06LC. This was Seiko's first LCD wristwatch: a field-effect liquid crystal display showed six digits of time continuously - you didn't need to press a button to see it either!
At #9: the 1976 Bulova Computron. The side mounted LED display meant you could sneak a peek at how long your meeting was taking without anyone else noticing. Very chic.
War Of The Colossal Beast (1958). A sequel to 1957's The Amazing Colossal Man this is the story of, er, a very big man who, er, gets pretty mad.
That's it. That's the plot
I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958). Released as a double feature with The Blob this features a woman whose husband is, er, a monster from outer space.