Books Authors Regretted Writing

Few books have shaped the American psyche quite like J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," whose rendering of adolescent angst as typified in the story of depressed teenager Holden Caulfield has reverberated down generations. First published in 1951, it has become both a classic and a right of passage for many readers, and it still continues to sell hundreds of thousands of copies a year.

The emotional insight at the heart of "The Catcher in the Rye," as well as the relatable and infectious narration of Caulfield, goes some way to explaining its cult status. So believable is the character that it is in fact easy to conflate the voice of Caulfield with that of Salinger himself, making the writer a mysterious and enigmatic hero to many readers.

But Salinger hated the attention that his most famous work brought to him, and he became a notorious recluse shortly after its publication, rejecting any advances to have the novel adapted for the screen or stage. The legend of the novel exploded in 1980, when it was reportedly one of the items in the possession of John Lennon's murderer, Mark Chapman. Biographers have described Salinger's deep regret at the level of fame "Catcher" brought him, and, as was revealed after his death in 2010, the novelist avoided publication for more than half a century after. He left behind a selection of works never intended for public consumption, but which may soon see the light of day.

An even-more-major stylist of the 20th century was the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, whose novel "Journey to the End of the Night" cast a long shadow on the form of the novel on both sides of the Atlantic in the decades after its publication in France in 1932. A pessimistic panorama of the age through the eyes of a physician likely modeled on Céline himself, "Journey to the End of the Night" is notable for its impassioned and at times amusing misanthropy, as well as its world-weariness and protagonist's anti-hero persona.

But Céline is also one of the century's most problematic writers, who, despite his influence, went on to become a Nazi sympathizer. The novelist made his support for the German forces public upon their occupation of Paris and made steps to support their propaganda campaign with the publication of overtly anti-Semitic works. When the Nazis were defeated in 1945, he was forced to exile himself to Denmark to avoid facing justice for being a collaborator.

Nevertheless, Céline's most famous work continued to be reprinted after his wartime disgrace. But the writer made clear in a preface to the 1952 edition how little he cared for continuing to give "Journey" to the reading public. "If I weren't under so much pressure, forced to earn my living, I can tell you right now, I'd suppress the whole thing, I wouldn't let a single line through."

To write an all-time classic that stirs the imaginations of readers long after you're gone is surely the dream of any writer. But for Charles Dodgson — aka Lewis Carroll — the British author responsible for the deathless "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel, "Through the Looking Glass: And What Alice Found There," published in 1865 and 1871, respectively, literary fame was a poor prize for his artistic brilliance.

Based on and originally written for the daughter of his friend, Henry Liddell, the novels became inescapable in the Victorian era and beyond, exhibiting an imaginativeness lacking from much of the children's literature of the day and chiming perfectly with the era's love of literary nonsense.

But in his own lifetime, Carroll found the level of fame that the Alice adventures brought him was too much to bear. In 2014, an 1891 letter written by Carroll to a friend named Mrs. Symonds was put up for auction, which revealed that Carroll deplored the lionization he experienced as a famous writer to such an extent that he wished that he had never written them.

Steven Spielberg's classic film "Jaws" — with its taut, adrenaline-inducing theme music — has one of the most famous blockbusters ever released. So much so, in fact, that it is reasonable to forget that the movie was based on a novel of the same name by the author Peter Benchley, published just a year before the movie's 1975 release. The novel sold 20 million copies, while Benchley also co-wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's adaptation.

Benchley, however, was filled with such deep regret with regard to how the hit movie instilled in the public a fear of sharks, recognizing that its portrayal of the sea creatures as unfailingly dangerous predators was utterly false. Benchley later became a noted campaigner for shark preservation, which he promoted throughout his life.

Even in his final days, Benchley was so vocal in his campaign to tell the world about the inaccuracies in his famous film-inspiring novel that he effectively disowned it entirely, telling the London Daily Express (via The New York Times): "'Jaws' was entirely a fiction. Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today. Sharks don't target human beings, and they certainly don't hold grudges. There's no such thing as a rogue man-eater shark with a taste for human flesh."

This one might be a heartbreaker, but the fact is that the creator of some of the world's most beloved children's characters — Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, and Christopher Robin, modeled on the author's own son — came to regret that he ever created them.

A.A. Milne had a long and varied writing career but hit the big time with his first children's book featuring Pooh, "The Hundred Acre Wood," the principal characters for which he based on toys in his young son's nursery room. Published in 1926, the book outsold his previous work for children by a 3:1 ratio, and led to his writing several more works set in the same world. The tales of Pooh and his friends are today considered children's classics.

But in Milne's autobiography, "It's Too Late Now," originally published in 1939, he admitted that he soon grew tired of writing for child readers and shared his frustration at how Pooh had come to overshadow his writing for adults in the form of novels, plays, and screenplays. He was equally frustrated at how critics tended to interpret his other work through the lens of Pooh, even going so far as to suggest that one of the characters in a play he had written was intended to be an adult version of Christopher Robin. Milne later became estranged from his son, who resented his father using his name and the characters of his childhood for fame and fortune.

The "King of Horror" Stephen King hasn't exactly shown himself to be overly concerned with how his novels might affect the minds of his millions of readers. From "The Shining" to "Carrie," from "Misery" to "Pet Sematary," time and again King has produced work that continues to haunt the American psyche.

But while most of the novels published over the course of King's long career continue to find new readers, there is one that the author himself decided to suppress: the 1977 novel "Rage," published under King's alias Richard Bachman. The novel tells the story of Charlie Decker, a teenage school student who murders his teachers and holds classmates hostage in his school, prompting a stand-off with the police. King notes in his introduction to the 1985 anthology, "The Bachman Books," that shortly after its publication, "Rage" was linked to a number of potential crimes that the FBI — who interviewed King — suspected were inspired by the book. Though King admitted to "sleepless nights" as he ruminated on the responsibility an author has over the influence their work on real-world events, he ultimately put the responsibility on the reader, with an appeal to those who might emulate Decker to "pick up a pen instead."

However, in a lecture on gun violence delivered in 1999, King recalled that the perpetrator of a school shooting had kept a copy of "Rage" in his locker. King withdrew the book from publication, saying he did so with a sense of "relief."

If you have been impacted by incidents of mass violence, or are experiencing emotional distress related to incidents of mass violence, you can call or text Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 for support.