I don't suppose there are many rejection
letters that most writers would want to hang on to, but this from June 2
1971 (which I only found again a few days ago) meant a lot to me at the
time - and still does. It was from August Derleth, written
less than a month before his death on the 4th July 1971. I wonder how
many editors of his standing would have spared the time to write a
detailed rejection letter like this? At the time, unsure how reliable
airmail letters were and whether a submission to the great Arkham House
would even get read and, more importantly, at a time before word
processors had been invented and every typescript had to be individually
typed , I was wary of sending my very best stories off into what might
have been a void. I was ready to send off something better next time
after receiving this letter, but it was too late.
Mind you, I did
learn an important lesson from this letter and I never again used
Lovecraftian names with such careless ease! And not at all for many
years.
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