Another Time, Perhaps Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dr. Seuss

Though accounts differ, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" was rejected by at least twenty publishers before a chance encounter allowed Theodore Geisel to get it published. It was 1936 and the world teetered on the brink of war, but Geisel, operating under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss, was able to use his satirical and comical sketches to gain support for Roosevelt and his witty use of language to write children's books, sometimes in prose, but more often in verse.

Dr. Seuss would write more than sixty books over his lifetime and created memorable characters like the Lorax, the Cat in the Hat, and the Grinch. Some of his books were adapted into movies, others into television series, and into video games. His use of rhythm and rhyme are studied often and they're extremely accessible to kids.

Answer: Rowling

The idea for Joanne "JK" Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels came to her when she was 25 and stuck on a train. She lived a very interesting life, having worked in Portugal as an English teacher, getting married, having a child there, and breaking up with her husband and moving back to England as a single mother, all in the span of three years.

For a while, Rowling lived below the poverty line, getting aid from the government to finish her education and to be able to provide for her daughter, Jessica. However, the story kept coming together, and, finally, in 1995 her manuscript was finished... only to be rejected a whopping twelve times! Still, she persisted and the thirteenth time was the charm. Though the initial run was only 1000 copies, it was amazingly successful. Now, we have a seven-book series, spin-offs, movie versions, and other projects. All these because of Rowling's 'boy on a train'.

Answer: Ray Bradbury

While rejection was pretty common for Ray Bradbury in his first decades as an author, he persevered and eventually became an immensely successful author of science fiction and horror stories. He started in short stories, but they weren't getting much attention until a publisher asked Bradbury to tie them all together to create one novel. His first novel, "The Martian Chronicles", was just that. Later Bradbury would write the dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451" which was one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

In Bradbury's own words:
"I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn't realize what a strong person I was; I persevered and wrote a thousand more dreadful short stories, which were rejected in turn. Then, during the late forties, I actually began to sell short stories and accomplished some sort of deliverance from snowstorms in my fourth decade. [...] The blizzard doesn't last forever; it just seems so."

Answer: Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller was born to write, but not successfully at first. He had submitted a story as a teenager that got rejected, and these just kept coming. The US Air Force didn't reject Heller and he got posted to the Italian front in a bomber crew during World War II. He flew 60 uninspired missions in a B-25 and this inspired his hero - John Yossarian.

"Catch-22" didn't fare so well at the publishers' hands. One even wrote that "I haven't really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say. Apparently the author intends it to be funny - possibly even satire - but it is really not funny on any intellectual level." "Catch-22" would go on to be one of the most significant novels of the 20th century, even so much so that it is required reading at the US Air Force Academy, where the perils of bureaucracy are learned. In retrospect, perhaps it was kind of fitting that it was rejected 22 times...

Answer: Samuel Beckett

Even though Samuel Beckett was already successful enough to have poetry published, a novel of short stories as well, it was not good enough for publishers who shot down "Murphy" a grand total of forty times before it was finally put in ink. And that, too, only after a strong recommendation by the brother of William Butler Yeats.

Well, the wait paid off and Beckett was established as a novelist. Perhaps best known for his play "Waiting for Godot", Beckett was able to write equally well in French and in English. He lived the majority of his life in Paris, not too far from his native Ireland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 and is regarded as one of the top authors of the century.

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was told to "lose the Gatsby character" or the novel would fail. He eventually kept the character, rewrote some parts rather extensively, and found someone who would publish "The Great Gatsby". However, despite this being Fitzgerald's magnum opus, it did not do well with the public either. Published in 1925, it sold only 20,000 copies in its first year and dwindled after that. Fitzgerald passed away in 1940 believing that he was a failure as an author.

Nowadays, there's barely a person out there who doesn't know this story. It was made, and remade, and remade yet again into movies. It's studied extensively and its themes are still relevant. About rejection, however, F. Scott Fitzgerald said himself that one needs to "work like hell! I had 122 rejection slips before I sold a story". Good thing he did!

Answer: Louisa May Alcott

When Louisa May Alcott turned in her manuscript for the first part of "Little Women", one publisher told her flat out: "Stick to your teaching, Miss Alcott. You can't write." Despite this awful rejection, and others, Alcott persisted and was finally able to sell her story and got it in print. She followed it up with the second half (which was titled "Good Wives" in some places) and this later became the entire novel.

Louisa May Alcott may have had to compromise on the ending that she actually wanted to write, and this was one of her regrets for the rest of her life, but "Little Women" propelled her writing career. She wrote two more sequels to this story and many other novels and short stories, largely drawing upon her own life as inspiration.

Answer: John Grisham

John Grisham grew up a Mississippi kid and did most of his schooling there too. He ended up with a J.D. and a job practicing law. He also got elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1984 and served two terms there. However, his true passion was writing and his first novel took him three years to write. It took yet another year to find someone who would publish it. "A Time to Kill" was a hit.

John Grisham would go on to have a stellar career. Not all of his books are legal thrillers but that does seem to be the main genre he draws inspiration from. Other interesting themes of his are the South and growing up. From 1991 to 2006, John Grisham would have one of the top ten bestselling books of the year. Not only that, but many of his books were adapted into movies as well. Not bad for someone who was told by publishers "objection!" when he tried to get his first novel published.

Answer: Agatha Christie

Unsuccessful initially under her own name or under pseudonyms, Agatha Christie had a rough start to her literary career. She first wrote short stories... no. She then wrote a novel, "Snow Upon the Desert", still no. Only when she engaged Eden Phillpotts to introduce Christie to her publisher was there a glimmer of hope. The publisher read the manuscript and then suggested... that she give it up and write a new novel. "Snow Upon the Desert" was never published. Her second attempt, however, met with success only when she changed the ending at the publisher's request.

Agatha Christie is considered to be the most successful fiction author ever. Over two billion copies of her books have been sold. Her recurring characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, are well known. She wrote sixty-six novels under her own name, six more under a pseudonym, and several short-story collections. Her play, "The Mousetrap", was the longest-running play when it shut down in 2020 due to Coronavirus. Not bad for someone who was told "no"...

Answer: Stephen King

Living in a trailer, writing short stories on a typewriter, Stephen King did not feel successful as he started to write his first novel. Certainly, not his fourth novel either. "Carrie" started as a short story, but, the story rapidly evolved and became more intricate and dark. However, King did not feel that he knew enough about a girl's perspective to be actually writing a book. So, unlike his first three novels, he didn't plan to shelf it, he actually threw it out. Tabitha King, his wife and also an author, fished it out of the bin and told him that she would help with the female parts.

When it was done, Stephen King sent out "Carrie" to many publishers. He received 30 rejections, enough to douse any hopes that he might have a successful story on his hands. However, apparently, if you try hard enough, you'll eventually succeed. And succeed he did.

Nowadays, Stephen King has published over sixty novels, collections of short stories, novellas, scripts, and more. His books have been made into dozens of movies and television shows. He himself has overcome addiction and a pretty bad car accident, and, through it all, he kept writing.