More Comfort for Rejected Writers

Just thought you’d like more examples of famous works which had to go through the Wall of Rejection first:

From a rejection slip for article sent to the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling:

'I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language.’

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, the youngest person ever to receive it.

From a rejection slip for The Diary of Anne Frank:

'The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiosity level.’

First published in 1947, Anne Frank's diary is one of the most powerful memoirs of the Holocaust. The diary has been translated into 67 languages with over 30 million copies sold.

From rejection slip for George Orwell's Animal Farm:

'It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.’

Animal Farm has been translated into several languages including Hungarian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and has been included on a top 100 list of books between 1923 and 2005.

From rejection slip for Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It:

'These stories have trees in them.’

It has since sold more than a million copies. (By the way, it was MacLean’s first book and he didn’t start writing until he was 70.)

Just thought that might cheer you up.