History CreatorBacklash / Literature

* According to anecdote, if you see Creator/HarlanEllison at a signing and innocently present a certain book[[note]]''Doomsman''[[/note]], he will destroy it and pay you for it.

** He admits to not liking ''Literature/PetSematary'' in the book's introduction, finding it too bleak, nihilistic, and grim, expressing a hopeless view of the world that he doesn't really believe. He only agreed to publish it to get out of a contract. It's a case of MagnumOpusDissonance, as many readers like the bleakness and consider it his most effective "straight" horror novel.

** In addition, he regretted writing ''Literature/TheHobbit'' as a children’s book, since he felt that he contributed to the false idea that fantasy is only for children.

* Creator/JRRTolkien grew to dislike ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' mostly because of the extreme obsessiveness of its fans, saying they were "involved in the stories in a way that I'm not" and referring to them as "my deplorable cultus". He also resented that his publishers demanded a sequel to ''Literature/TheHobbit'' rather than letting him print ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', which was much more dear to him.

I'd rather see than be one.\\\

''Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"—\\

* Gelett Burgess was so exasperated over the popularity of his fluff 1895 poem "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Cow The Purple Cow]]" that he eventually wrote... a retaliatory poem.
-->''Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"—\\

* The introduction to "A Restoration of Faith" (the first story Creator/JimButcher ever wrote to be set in TheVerse of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'') is ''very'' much full of SelfDeprecation and Butcher mocking how sophomoric the story is and reflective of him having written it when he was a first-time college student. Additionally, Butcher has been very dismissive towards the first few novels in the series (''Literature/StormFront'' and ''Literature/FoolMoon'' in particular), and he has openly advised new fans to start with ''Literature/DeadBeat'' since he feels that it's the best entry point for new people to get into the books.

* This was Creator/GeorgeOrwell's attitude toward his novels ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'' and ''A Clergyman's Daughter'', which he wrote for mostly contractual reasons. He also destroyed several unpublished novels he wrote in the 1920s before he adopted the pen name of "George Orwell" (his real name was Eric Arthur Blair).

* Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of Creator/{{Hipgnosis}}, a British design studio who created famous album covers for bands such as Music/PinkFloyd and Music/LedZeppelin between [[TheSixties the late '60s]] and [[TheEighties the early '80s]], deal with this trope imaginatively in their retrospective book ''For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis''. In the introduction to the (nearly) complete list of their covers at the back of the book, they admit that "There are some designs we would rather like to forget altogether"; within the list, these are marked with an icon of a turkey.

* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley wrote several of these, mostly in TheSixties, with titles like ''[[GirlOnGirlIsHot I am a lesbian]]'' or ''[[BrotherSisterIncest My Sister, My Love]]''. ''Warrior Woman'' also has a lot of fanservice with lesbians.

* Creator/DouglasAdams suffered from terrible black moods, and the fourth and fifth installments of the ''[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' trilogy (which [[TrilogyCreep tells you when he was thinking of ending it]]) are both missives at his fans constantly nagging him for a new book. Interestingly, they go about it in very different ways:

* [[Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} Nasu Kinoko]] refuses to re-publish ''VisualNovel/MahouTsukaiNoYoru - Witch on the Holy Night'' despite fan pleas to do so (since only five copies were ever made), mainly due to embarrassment over "bad writing". His feelings about other old works seem to be similar. He seems to have gotten over this in the case of ''VisualNovel/WitchOnTheHolyNight'' as it was released in the form of an all-ages visual novel in April 2012.

* ''Play Dead'' by {{Creator/Harlan Coben}} has an author's note in the beginning saying that it's his first novel, written in his early twenties, and also that, if anyone reading the note hasn't read his other books, to put this book back on the shelf in the bookstore and go buy one of them instead.

** By contrast, the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', feels much more like a ''Hitchhiker's'' book. It's also a depressing, nihilistic book in which Arthur's RelationshipUpgrade in the previous book is [[BusCrash undone off-screen]], the Guide is taken over by ''really'' {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, and EverybodyDies and Earth is irrevocably destroyed in all universes, [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun making any more books impossible]]. Adams came to regret ending the series on such a depressing note and was in the early stages of writing a sixth book that would have fixed everything, but [[DiedDuringProduction sadly died before he could finish it]]. Bits of it were posthumously published as part of ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt''. Both the radio adaptation (as the "Quintessential Phase") and the sequel-by-other-hands ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'' also revised the DownerEnding to something more optimistic (in different ways), although it's not entirely clear how much either of them lined up with Adams' unfinished plans.

* Creator/AnneRice, for a time, disclaimed her popular ''[[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Vampire Chronicles]]'' series, as well as the connected ''Mayfair Witches'' series, due to converting to Christianity, but then she got over it after she denounced religion (her son is openly gay, and much of Christianity is still unaffirming of queer people and identifies).

** The original text of "Henry's Sneeze" stated that Henry's "sneeze" of coal dust and soot left the schoolboys dropping rocks on trains "black as n***rs". Creator/WilbertAwdry rewrote this later in the 1970s after backlash in the press.

* Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez [[https://www.abc.es/cultura/libros/20140417/abci-garcia-marquez-odio-cien-201404172322.html talked about his displeasure]] that he got international fame for writing ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'' and his dislike for what many critics consider as the greatest novel in Latin American literature. His dislike for it stems for how it [[ToughActToFollow overshadowed the rest of his work]], [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible how critics and intellectuals have praised it without understanding it properly]], how it brought him [[CelebrityIsOverrated unwanted amounts of fame]], and lastly, how he considers his other novels to be far superior to it.

** By contrast, the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', feels much more like a ''Hitchhiker's'' book. It's also a depressing, nihilistic book in which Arthur's RelationshipUpgrade in the previous book is [[BusCrash undone off-screen]], the Guide is taken over by ''really'' {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, and EverybodyDies and Earth is irrevocably destroyed in all universes, essentially [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun making any more books impossible]]. Adams came to regret ending the series on such a depressing note and was in the early stages of writing a sixth book that would have fixed everything, but [[DiedDuringProduction sadly died before he could finish it]]. Bits of it were posthumously published as part of ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt''. Both the radio adaptation (as the "Quintessential Phase") and the sequel-by-other-hands ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'' also revised the DownerEnding to something more optimistic (in different ways), although it's not entirely clear how much either of them lined up with Adams' unfinished plans.

* Sergej Dowlatov, an emigrant from Russia, forbade all his work made in USSR from being reprinted. He then wrote a novel, ''Compromiss'', to show why (basically all of his previous writing was [[ExecutiveMeddling heavily modified]] by Soviet censorship).

* Creator/MarkGatiss has ''The King's Men'', which is basically [[AuthorAppeal gay porn]] with much purple prose.

* Daryush "Roosh V" Valizadeh first gained notoriety as a pick-up artist with his controversial ''Bang'' series of books meant to serve as guides to getting laid in various countries, which were widely criticized for their dismissal of ideas of sexual consent. In 2019, upon converting to Christianity, he [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/25/can-someone-please-send-mushrooms-to-all-the-mens-rights-activists-out-there renounced]] his entire career as a pick-up artist, pulling the ''Bang'' books from his online store and banning members of his forum who attempted to discuss or promote the tips within them.

* Creator/HPLovecraft disliked much of his work, particularly ''Herbert West -- Reanimator'', which he did [[MoneyDearBoy mainly to pay the bills]]. He wasn't much of a fan of ''The Horror at Red Hook'' either, and once described ''The Call of Cthulhu'' as "middling" and "full of cheap and cumbrous touches".

* Creator/HPLovecraft averted this trope by burning virtually everything he'd written when he was young. While notoriously dissatisfied with even his published works throughout his life, this one might've been a good call, as the few fragments which escaped the fireplace probably didn't deserve to.

* Creator/PeterBenchley came to regret writing ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'' when he learned that drastic overfishing was driving many shark species to extinction, coming to believe he was at least partially responsible due to his book (and the [[Film/{{Jaws}} eponymous film version]]) instilling a cross-cultural fear of sharks around the world. He spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it by becoming a vocal ocean conservation activist.

* Creator/DrSeuss came to feel a deep regret for the racist anti-Japanese cartoons he drew during World War II, to the point he dedicated ''Literature/HortonHearsAWho'' to a Japanese friend.

* Creator/StephenieMeyer claims that she is "so over" ''{{Literature/Twilight}}'', saying that it is "not a happy place to be" for her. In particular, she's tired of it constantly overshadowing her more recent works. When asked if she'd ever return to the series, Meyer replied, "Not completely. What I would probably do is three paragraphs on my blog saying which of the characters died."

** The original text of "Henry's Sneeze" stated that Henry's "sneeze" of coal dust and soot left the schoolboys dropping rocks on trains "black as n***rs". Awdry rewrote this later in the 1970s after backlash in the press.
** Wilbert Awdry stated "James the Red Engine" to be his least favourite work due to being written hastily to meet a deadline.

* Creator/StephenKing is ashamed of writing the novel ''Literature/Rage1977'' (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) after its connection to several school shootings. It's since been taken out of print.
** King also showed no love for his "trunk novel" ''Literature/{{Blaze}}'' in an appearance before the National Press Club. He called it "an absolutely terrible novel," and speculated that publishing it instead of ''Literature/SalemsLot'' might have derailed his career before it got started (this was long before he revised ''Blaze'' and published it under his pseudonym Richard Bachman).
** He has expressed similar disdain for his science fiction tome ''Literature/TheTommyKnockers''. It was the last book he wrote before kicking a serious cocaine habit and he believes that his addiction was starting to show in his writing. He's referred to it as an "awful book" and that "within its 700 plus pages there's a potentially good 300-page novel." Fans tend to agree.
** In addition, don't expect to ever read his earliest novels ''The Aftermath'' (written when he was just 16) or ''Sword in the Darkness'', unless you pay a visit to the Special Collections section of the student library at the University of Maine at Orono.

* Creator/AgathaChristie came to hate her most famous character, the fictional detective Literature/HerculePoirot. By 1960, she had been resenting him for many years, and famously described him as a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep." She never stopped writing ''Poirot'' stories, though, as she considered it a duty to [[PanderingToTheBase give the public what they wanted]], but she was not above skewering the character in later years (usually through her AuthorAvatar, mystery writer-turned-detective Ariadne Oliver). Poirot did [[spoiler:[[DroppedABridgeOnHim get killed off]]]] in ''Curtain'', but that one was written during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Blitz]] and Christie reasoned that, were she to die, she may as well TorchTheFranchiseAndRun. After the war, she refused to have ''Curtain'' published until shortly before her death.

* Don't say this trope applies only to (semi)obscure hated works. Believe it or not, Literature/HerculePoirot was this for Creator/AgathaChristie, who got tired of writing his novels, describing him in 1930 as "insufferable" and in 1960 as a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep". However, since she saw how popular the character was, she felt the obligation to continue giving his fans more Poirot stories, which she did until 1975, one year before her death (albeit with a finale novel she wrote in the '40s in case she didn't survive the War). In particular, her Poirot novels ''The Big Four'' and ''The Mystery of the Blue Train'' were among her least favourites. She wrote them around the time of her famed disappearance and subsequent divorce in order to [[ContractualObligationProject fulfill the terms of her publication contract]], and it's clear that her heart wasn't in it. The former was more or less a set of incomplete short stories strung together with a loose overarching plot, while the latter was little more than an AdaptationExpansion of the short story "The Plymouth Express".