War and Peace
The Good Earth
To Kill a Mockingbird
Watership Down
The Fountainhead
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
This Side of Paradise
Madam Bovary
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Bridge Over the River Kwai
Lord of the Flies
Ulysses
The Wind in the Willows
A River Runs Through It
The Razor’s Edge
Moby Dick
Animal Farm
Gandhi
Valley of the Dolls
The Time MachineT
he Picture of Dorian Gray

No, this is not my 11th-grade son’s required reading list for his English class, although it well could be. Nor is it a list of classics I’ve read over the years, though I have read most of these.

What these titles have in common is this: each was rejected by one, two, or several publishers, sometimes with scathing reviews, before finding acceptance and publication. What would have happened had the authors of these rejected manuscripts given up after their first, second, third, or tenth rejections? What if these authors had decided to quit?

Consider some of their names: Pearl Buck, Pierre Boulle, F. Scott Fitgerald, Beatrix Potter, Gustave Flaubert, Anne Frank, William Golding, Kenneth Grahame, James Joyce, Norman Maclean, Herman Melville, George Orwell, William Shirer, H.G. Wells, and Oscar Wilde.

These authors, whose works have been read by generations of children, high schoolers, and college students, persevered through rejection. And their works, it could be said, have influenced the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of readers over the years.

All because they chose to persevere.

Statistically it’s unlikely we’ll reach literary greatness or influence young minds the way these authors have. It may be unlikely, but it’s still possible. If we quit, if we give up in the face of rejection, the outcome is assured: no one will hear our voices.

I’ll take “unlikely, but possible” over certain failure any day.

How about you?

‘Til next time,
Joan