Madeleine L’Engle’s Long Years of Literary Rejection
By Nava Atlas | On March 10, 2018 | Updated December 6, 2022 | Comments (2)
Pairing Madeleine L’Engle‘s young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time together with the concept of literary rejection might seem odd, given its iconic stature. But I would challenge anyone to come up with a story that better illustrates the fine line between rejection and acceptance than hers:
“A Wrinkle in Time was almost never published. You can’t name a major publisher who didn’t reject it. When we’d run through forty-odd publishers, my agent sent it back. We gave up.”
Most editors thought it was too dark and complex for children. After some time, L’Engle made contact with John Farrar of Farrar Straus Giroux through a friend, and the rest is publishing history. Read More→