13 Writers Who Grew to Hate Their Own Books / Emily Temple

If you know any writers, you may know that almost everyone hates their own book at some point. Usually it’s between draft 13 and draft 37, when there’s no end in sight, and they’re questioning everything, from the main character to the font. But some authors grow to dislike, disown, resent, or regret their books after publication—whether because of an unexpected critical or popular response, changes in their own views, or simple aging. In Palm Sunday, for instance, Kurt Vonnegut gives his own previously published novels letter grades (from A+ to D). And it’s not only novelists: W.H. Auden turned his back on a number of his own poems, including “Spain” and the very famous “September 1, 1939,” which he finally did allow, with a couple others, to be reprinted in a 1964 anthology, but only with this printed caveat: “Mr. W.H. Auden considers these five poems to be trash which he is ashamed to have written.” Below, a list of some other writers who wound up disavowing (or at least disapproving of) their own earlier works—some of them famous, and even beloved by millions. As K.V. would say: so it goes.

Octavia Butler, Survivor (1978)

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