In 1961, Forrest Ackerman, editor of Spacemen magazine, received the above letter from a writer named Stephen King. But King was only 14 at the time, and not quite the household name he would become some years later. You can see hints of the horror master he would eventually be, in the declaration that the obituary section was his favorite part of the magazine.
Ackerman declined to publish the story accompanied by this letter, titled "The Killer." You can read a synopsis of it at Wikipedia. Despite this and other rejections, King kept writing and submitting stories until he finally got one of his tales published in another magazine in 1967. He also wrote full-length novels, and his fourth book was the first to be published: Carrie, in 1970. Persistence pays off!
Ackerman reconsidered his rejection many years later, and finally published "The Killer"in the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, in 1994. -via Nag on the Lake
Newest 1 Comment
"People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk." -Stephen King
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)