Faber & Faber's Winningest Rejections

Toby Faber tells Literary Hub's readers about a few of the publishing house's most notable rejections, including T.S. Eliot's rejection of W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot's rejection of James Joyce. "Publishing history is littered with tales of authors who suffered rejection after rejection—often for years—before they finally found a publisher prepared to take them on," writes Faber. "Their stories are invoked as encouragement to every struggling writer: persist, and eventually you will succeed. Equally, of course, they can be read as cautionary tales for publishers: 'look how foolish you were,' they seem to say. 'Learn from your mistakes.'" More: 

I’m not sure I agree with the first half of that admonition. The main job of a publisher is to exercise taste in choosing what to publish. No one can be expected to get it right every time, and it may well be better to err on the side of selectivity than to publish too widely. The idea that we should learn from our mistakes, however—or at least acknowledge them—is far more compelling. At the very least, it serves to temper the pride that might otherwise take over. There are many parts of Faber’s history that make me proud, but there is no harm in remembering how that history includes the occasional howler.

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T.S. Eliot rejects WH Auden

T. S. Eliot to W. H. Auden, 9 September 1927:

I must apologise for having kept your poems such a long time, but I am very slow to make up my mind. I do not feel that any of the enclosed is quite right, but I should be very interested to follow your work. I am afraid that I am much too busy to give you any detailed criticism that would do the poems justice, and I suggest that whenever you happen to be in London you might let me know and I should be very glad if you cared to come to see me.

Auden was not disheartened by this response, writing to Christopher Isherwood, “On the whole coming from Eliot’s reserve I think it is really quite complimentary.” More to the point, the rejection was only temporary. Faber’s publication in 1930 of Auden’s simply-named Poems was one of the first indications that it was seeking to be the standard-bearer for new poetry. By the time Auden died in 1973, the firm would have published something like 20 collections bearing his name.

T. S. Eliot rejects James Joyce

T. S. Eliot to James Joyce, 20 April 1932:

We have gone into the question of the publication of Ulysses in England as thoroughly as possible, and have taken every opinion available on the prospects. [. . .]

We are advised that we should certainly be liable to prosecution and heavy penalties, with the possibility of the chairman’s having to spend six months in gaol, which in itself would be disastrous for the business. The opinion further is that such prosecution would certainly take place.

It is hard to believe now the extent to which publishers were circumscribed by censorship right up until the 1960s. Paralyzed by the fear of prosecution for obscenity, the firm had to watch in 1934 as The Bodley Head became the British publisher of Ulysses. Faber was already, however, publishing fragments from what was then called “Work in Progress,” and which would be published in full as Finnegans Wake in 1939.

Read on at Literary Hub.