We Regret to Inform You

By Helluo Librorum · published September 19, 2026 · Still · 11 slides, at your own pace · Edited Sep 19

Even masterpieces get passed on. A collection of brutally off-target, scathing rejection letters sent to books that became classics anyway.

Before they were literary icons, they were manuscript pages sitting on an editor's desk being called unreadable, boring, or worthless. Here is what publishers originally thought of what we today consider masterpieces.