krok-o-dyle:

10 facts you might not know about Watership Down

“The reviewer for The Times could barely contain himself: “I announce with trembling pleasure the appearance of a great story.” Forty years ago, a hitherto unknown British civil servant named Richard Adams released Watership Down and captivated two generations of trembling fans. Here are ten things that you might not know about it.

1. The novel began as stories that Adams told his daughters on long car rides to Stratford-upon-Avon. He submitted his manuscript to many publishers, but they rejected it time and time again. Adams was about to hire a vanity publisher to produce a few copies when a small time publisher named Rex Collings accepted Watership Down for a 2,000-copy run. It has since sold millions of copies.”

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