Having Second Thoughts: Sometimes, The Less Said, The Better
by “No reader interest,” was the judgment of the London publisher W.H. Allen on Frederick Forsyth’s first novel, The Day of the Jackal. To date it has sold eight million copies…Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic Dune was rejected by 13 publishers before the Chilton Book Company accepted it. Today sales top 10 million.
Horse Sense
In 1875 the U.S. Congress denounced the gasoline driven horseless carriage: “The development of this new power may displace the use of horses, which would wreck our agriculture.”
Even interested parties could see no future in the internal-combustion engine. In 1896 the journal Horseless Age pronounced: “The vast majority of people would prefer a smooth-running, reliable steam-engine…to the evil-smelling, dangerous, wasteful, and at best uncertain and unreliable (gasoline) engine.
The Daimler-Benz automobile company might have disagreed. But in 1900 a spokesman reputedly announced that “three will probably be a mass market for no more than 1,000 motorcars in Europe. There is, after all, a limit to the number of chauffeurs who could be found to drive them.” By 1927 Henry Ford had sold 15 million Model T’s.
Fuzzy Reception
John Logie Baird encountered unexpected resistance when he tried to arouse interested in his new invention, which he called television. As he recalled in 1940: “They were convinced that the transmission of images – especially mentioning fog as an impediment – was impossible.”
In 1936, after the world’s first TV broadcasts in London, radio critic Rex Lambert wrote that “television won’t matter in your lifetime or mine.” As recently as 1984 radio pioneers Mary Somerville prophesied: “Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan. Newspaper editor C.P. Scott had the last word: “Television? No good will come of this device. The word is half Greek and Half Latin.
Painfully Wrong
Before the introduction of anesthetics, surgery was an agonizing experience for the patient and was limited mostly to amputations performed in haste. In 1839 the surgeon Alfred Velpeau concluded that “the abolition of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it today. Knife and pain are two words that…must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient,”
In 1847 James Young Simpson discovered the anesthetic of both ether and chloroform, opening the way to painless surgery.
Near Misses
“No reader interest,” was the judgment of the London publisher W.H. Allen on Frederick Forsyth’s first novel, The Day of the Jackal. To date it has sold 8 million copies.
Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic Dune was rejected by 13 publishers before the Chilton Book Company accepted it. Today sales top 10 million.
Only God ands Angels: Wrote Lord Kelvin, a leading scientist of his day, in 1894: “I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning.” He was not alone. “It is only given to God and angels to fly,” said Bishop Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur, just before they made man’s first powered flight in Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Once Bitten
“Malaria has been linked,” declared the World health Organization (WHO) from its Geneva headquarters in May 1975. On the day of the announcement Dr. Thomas Lambo, deputy general of WHO was rushed to the hospital. The diagnosis was malaria.
Dunces All
“He will never amount to anything,” reported a Munich gymnasium (high school) about one of its pupils. His name: Albert Einstein.
Charles Darwin’s Father addressed his son this way: “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.”
Thomas Edison was labeled a “dunce” by his father and “addled” by his first teacher; one headmaster predicted that he “would never make a success of anything.” Among Edison’s inventions was the phonograph, which in 1915 he himself described as “not of any commercial value.”
Long-Winded
MGM rejected the novel Gone With the Wind with the observation: “No Civil War picture ever made a nickel.” And a reader at 20th Century-Fox said: “To think they could hoodwink me with rot like that!” When producer David O. Selznick’s offer of a share in the profits, saying: “This picture is going to be one of the biggest white elephants of all time.” Today the film is ranked as one of the highest grossing films ever made.
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Post Commentken bultman
On September 30, 2009 at 10:48 am
A fabulous read. Thanks for all your research on this one…as usual.
papaleng
On September 30, 2009 at 11:03 am
a well-researched one and great info as well.
Katien
On September 30, 2009 at 12:34 pm
An amazing and very interesting article. It is amazing how so-called experts can be so wrong!
Christine Ramsay
On September 30, 2009 at 1:27 pm
A brilliant article. I hope this is one you thought had got lost. I can understand these people’s feelings. Even now I am amazed that a television works the way it does. Excellent work.
Christine
kate smedley
On September 30, 2009 at 2:36 pm
As always a fascinating article and so well researched.
cutedrishti8
On September 30, 2009 at 2:43 pm
very well presented..
susan
On September 30, 2009 at 4:42 pm
How funny! I wonder what other hidden standards and misinformation we are all sitting in now? I’m sure 10 years from now there will be enough to double this list.
cardy
On September 30, 2009 at 4:57 pm
A really good read grate article.
Lostash
On September 30, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Good stugg, Mr Ghaz!! Some blinders here!
John
On September 30, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Love this article. Thanks mrghaz
Idazalee
On September 30, 2009 at 9:45 pm
A great article..very interesting story. I loved this article too..Keep it up! Well done Mr Ghaz:)
Ruby Hawk
On September 30, 2009 at 9:57 pm
People make so many mistakes that it doesn’ t pay to listen to a thing they say. LOL, It is true. Everything that we believe is eventually disproven. I loved “The Day of the Jackel” and “Dune” is the best book ever written according to me.
Goodselfme
On October 1, 2009 at 12:27 am
Good info and lots to learn from you in this well composed piece.TX
Webiny
On October 1, 2009 at 11:28 am
Good job, Mr. Ghaz! This is a very well researched and written piece. It’s very inspiring too, to know that the biggest some of the biggest successes of all time were looked down upon. Thanks for writing. =)
LOVELYHONEY
On October 1, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I know of a similar case
A lady evaluator wrote on a manuscript ‘‘SALES DUBIOUS”….
THE AUTHOR then got a quack publisher to publish it and promised to buy /sell 200 copies.
Tithe publisher was happy 3000 copies were sold by word of mouth.
IN ONE YEAR NO ADVTS
The publisher took all the money away and the poor author got name only
More than money
I too am looking for some such Publisher
Having written OVER 1260 poems in one year THE YEAR is not over three months more to go and I add on off the cuff poems. Perhaps as someone had mentioned
”A WORLD GUINESS BOOK OF Records case,
But they seem to be asleep.
PERHAPS SOME DAY WILL COME WHENEVER I AM NO MORE
REGARDS
lillyrose
On October 1, 2009 at 3:48 pm
great write so very interesting and so much information! I love the Daimler-Benz. x
Christ
On October 2, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Another Brilliant article. well-researched and very interesting read ..Thanks again Mr Ghaz..You always amaze me..Thank you:)
Amry
On October 2, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Educational article. Keep it up Mr. Ghaz..Thanks
C. Jordan
On October 3, 2009 at 4:08 pm
A very well put together and interesting article.SU’d
N.Salam
On October 3, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Nicely done!! This article is wonderful. I enjoy reading this cool stuff. very intersting as usual. well-researched..Thnks for sharing! I like it:) Stumbled!!
N. Lloyd Andrews
On October 4, 2009 at 10:21 am
Nice one. Thank goodness for the fools, the dreamers, the rebels and the contraries. If not for them, invention and innovation would have ceased and we’d still be reading by candelight.
I am especially struck by the idea of surgery without anesthesia. I have often said thanks for having been born in the era of modern medicine.
Manuel
On March 28, 2010 at 10:24 am
Wow – a long list that begins with a well-debunked legend.
The “director of the U.S. Patent Office” never said that. See: Sass, Samuel. “A Patently False Patent Myth.” Skeptical Inquirer 13 (1989): 310-312.
I didn’t bother to read the rest of the article after that.
RNB
On March 28, 2010 at 11:29 am
I didn’t bother reading Manuel’s comment when I saw he’s the sort of spaz who posts things three times.