Photo: domin_domin (Getty)
If you’re a writer who submits your work to publications then you probably know all about rejection — hell, some of the greatest authors out there today were once rejected, too. So you are going to be able to relate to this just-found letter from 1928 that might just be one of the most brutal rejection letter’s we’ve seen.
The Twitter “Letters of Note” shared a typewritten rejection letter written by the publishing house of Angus & Robertson LTD in 1928. The letter, addressed to F.C. Meyer, is right to the point — the point being that Meyer will not be getting published by Angus & Robertson LTD.
Check out the letter below.
All other rejection letters can step down. We have a winner. pic.twitter.com/dQijZsIgqL
— Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) December 3, 2017
As you can see the letter reads:
Dear Sir,
No, you may not send us your verses and we will not give you the name of another publisher. We hate no rival publisher sufficiently to ask you to inflict them on him. The specimen poem is simply awful. In fact, we have never seen worse.
Yours faithfully,
Angus & Robertson LTD
Yours faithfully? That’s rough. But don’t worry because there’s some good news: Meyers actually ended up getting published:
Incredibly, it looks like F. C. Meyer didn’t give up after that punch to the guts. pic.twitter.com/V0fl8UiacT
— Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) December 3, 2017
And if you’re wondering the type of writer that Meyer was well here is a taste of it:
A couplet from F.C. Meyer’s poem ‘Maori Maiden’
“I think – I understand thee well,
Rub my nose now for a spell!”— John Maguire (@JMaguireCritic) December 3, 2017
Um…OK…perhaps that publisher was right. I mean, Meyer did get a special historical mention in the 2001 Artscape Terribly Bad Verse & Awful Poetry Competition.
In the 2001 Artscape Terribly Bad Verse & Awful Poetry Competition, this work Meyer produced did get a special historical mention as being a sheer delight. https://t.co/IUnaKoQQYW
— Ice Nine (@IceNine) December 3, 2017
But hey, never give up on your dreams, folks.
h/t Someecards
