American writer John Kennedy Toole - The greatest bankruptcy in life is despair, and the greatest asset in life is hope. In 1969, the American writer John Kennedy Toole finally completed the novel--"A League of Idiots". Although he was very satisfied with his work and very confident, fate ruthlessly mocked him. . He traveled around with his works, but was rejected by many publishers and could not be published.
In 1970, the exhausted John Kennedy Toole was extremely disappointed and could not do anything. After enduring the blow of being unable to be published, he finally committed suicide by shooting himself, ending his life at the age of only 32.
Before his death, he left a pessimistic and world-weary last word: "I am not only despairing of my works, but also I am also desperate for the entire society. For desperate people like me, there may be only one way to choose, and that is to die as soon as possible to get rid of this desperate misfortune."
Losing a child in old age, for any parent, It was a very cruel thing. Yue's mother, who was already 79 years old at the time, was holding her only son's suicide note in her hands, bursting into tears, and fainted to the ground. The moment she fell to the ground, her son appeared in front of her eyes. The novel she had worked so hard to create suddenly gained strength in her heart, and she finally stood up tenaciously.
The old man endured the great sadness of losing his son and opened one publisher after another. Although the old man, like her son, was rejected by one publisher after another, she always firmly believed that her son was a genius in writing and his works were great. Although her son bid farewell to this world as a loser, world, but the old man did not give up the hope of publishing,
The old man persisted in contacting the publisher, using his clumsy language to try to convince the publisher again and again, She told those publishers that this work would one day become a great work that people pay attention to. If this work cannot be published, it will not only be a personal loss for her and her son, but also a major loss for the entire publishing industry and the entire society. Later Everything that happened was revealed by this persistent mother.
On the tenth anniversary of John's death, after being flatly rejected by no less than 18 publishers,
The editor-in-chief of Louis Anna Press personally reviewed the work . He was fascinated by the unique conception and funny language of the novel, and immediately decided to publish the work as quickly as possible.
In 1980, "The League of Idiots" was finally published and soon It soon caused a sensation among readers.
In 1981, after several discussions, the selection committee of the Pulitzer Prize for Art in the United States finally selected the final winning work. Among them, the novel "The Idiot" John Kennedy Tull, the author of "The Confederacy", became the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Unfortunately, he himself could no longer enjoy such an honor in person, and even when he was dying, he did not even dare to think about his own The work actually won a grand prize.
When a media reporter interviewed John's 89-year-old mother, she said a thought-provoking statement: The process of finding hope in despair made me realize that---life The greatest bankruptcy is despair, and the greatest asset in life is hope.