"...the dream of every rejected author come true..."

This is a bit of writer-geekery, but still irresistible: Norman Maclean's renowned A River Runs Through It was first accepted, then rejected, by Alfred A. Knopf. Then, after the book was published by University of Chicago Press (hooray for the home team!) and was very well-received, a Knopf editor wrote to Maclean, expressing interest in his next book. And here's Maclean's smart reply.

You must have known that Alfred A. Knopf turned down my first collection of stories after playing games with it, or at least the game of cat's-paw, now rolling it over and saying they were going to publish it and then rolling it on its back when the president of the company announced it wouldn't sell.

"The dream of every rejected author", indeed. His response is elegant and eloquent, which is testament to both his writing skill and obvious gentlemanly nature. I suspect that my own response would have been considerably more blunt, consisting of just two words of one syllable each.