Here's New York Times culture reporter David Carr, pictured with his rehab group in 1988. (We told you about him earlier this morning.) His forthcoming book, The Night of the Gun, re-creates his crack-shooting past through interviewing people—he's admitted that memories, especially his, cannot always be relied on. Thus, we are treated to a history of mugshots, medical records, and awesome rejection letters from the New Yorker. "There I was, less than a year sober, pitching my tale of woe," Carr writes in the book about this 1989 pitch for his cocaine-addiction story. (We scanned it; click to see.)

This letter is a bit rough in the way it anticipate's Carr's "disappointment":