Rotten Reviews: Some of the best authors have received rotten reviews.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, H. G. Wells ~ "An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would take...I think the verdict would be 'Oh don't read that horrid book.' "

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Lewis Carroll ~ "We fancy that any real child might be more puzzled than enchanted by this stiff, overwrought story." 1865

LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, D. H. Lawrence ~ "D. H. Lawrence has a diseased mind. He is obsessed by sex...we have no doubt that he will be ostracized by all except the most degenerate coteries in the literary world." 1928

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, J. D. Salinger ~ ""Recent war novels have accustomed us all to ugly words and images, but from the mouths of the very young and protected they sound peculiarly offensive...the ear refuses to believe." 1951

Writers take heart! When Huckleberry Finn was banned by the Concord Massachusetts public library, Mark Twain exulted: "That will sell 25,000 books for sure!"

Rotten Reviews & Reflections, Pushcart Press, 1998

Tomorrow: More bad reviews