A Rejection Letter
A copy of a rejection letter my agent received for the first book of mine she handled. Because I am a very kind person, I have omitted the name of the Editor and his publishing house. This is included to cheer up anybody who just got a rejection letter. Hang in there!
Dear Miss Kidd,
Ursula K. Le Guin writes extremely well,
but I'm sorry to have to say that on the basis of that one highly distinguishing quality alone I cannot make you an offer
for the novel. The book is so endlessly complicated by details of reference and information, the interim legends become
so much of a nuisance despite their relevance, that the very action of the story seems to be to become hopelessly bogged down and the book, eventually, unreadable. The whole is so dry and airless, so lacking in pace, that whatever drama and excitement
the novel might have had is entirely dissipated by what
does seem, a great deal of the time, to be extraneous
material. My thanks nonetheless for having thought of
us. The manuscript of The Left Hand of Darkness
is returned herewith. Yours sincerely,
The Editor
21 June, 1968
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