From Forgotten to Famous: The Timeless Journey of Literary Hope

Like all writers, I have my good days and my bad days, as well as my good weeks and bad weeks,  and this even applies to months. When nobody's paying attention to you, you begin to doubt you have any future. There are a lot of great writers who wrote wonderful stories and nobody even knows who they are now.

And then there are writers who had to wait decades before anyone found out how good their stories were. For instance, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fiztgerald was a complete flop. Fiztgerald's publisher expected glory and riches and promised Fitzgerald the same. Five hundred books in the first printing, and less than ten percent sold.

And what about Betty Smith, who wrote "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"? Another wonderful story that failed to gather any readers.

Both writers waited decades before anyone found value in their work. At the outset of World War 2, long before Pearl Harbor, the United States government began a program to counter the Nazis burning of books all across Europe. One proponent said, "The only way to fight evil ideas is with good ideas." So they printed and sent to soldiers, sailors, Marines, and pilots everywhere tens of thousands of titles: fiction, non-fiction, books, books, books!

Millions read "The Great Gatsby" and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." And after the war these fans wanted movies of those books, and others, too.

Sometimes, as writers, all we can do is keep hoping that someone, many someone, will read our stories and send us money for more stories.

Hope is all we have. And the desire for success.