In 75 Years, That Rejection Will Be Invalid
August 1, 2012 § 3 Comments
Don’t worry about those rejection letters. One day, when you’re considered one of the greatest American writers ever, The New Yorker will backtrack and publish that short story they passed on before you got famous.
At least, that’s what happened with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Recently his grandchildren found the rejected story in his papers. Fitzgerald scholar and editor James West passed it along to The New Yorker staff, who are going to run the story this week. The first time around, they weren’t so kind:
“The magazine wrote in an internal message that it was “altogether out of the question. It seems to us so curious and so unlike the kind of thing we associate with him and really too fantastic.”"
Okay, so Fitzgerald’s not around to enjoy this belated triumph, but the rest of us can wave our rejection letters in solidarity.
(image: GoodReads)
Ofcourse, some of the best artists and authors of our generation – were rejected at the beginning. As Gandhi said – first they laugh at you, then they get scared of you, then they try and stop you – and finally, they accept you … like this post
Reblogged this on THE BOOKCLUB.
I wrote about that story too (http://wp.me/p26InE-6A), but I didn’t hear about the original rejection until today, on electric literature (http://bit.ly/MUzzIA) and now here. Does the story at all remind you of a Dorothy Parker story? For some reason, it does for me, and now I’m trying to think back to her autobiography and figure out if ’36 was when she was sleeping with Fitzgerald. Ah, well.