LONDON — Rejection is a rite of passage that every writer, even some of the greatest — like George Orwell — has experienced.

Ernest Hemingway was told his writing was “tedious and offensive” by one publisher. Another rebuffed Herman Melville’s masterpiece, “Moby Dick,” questioning, “Does it have to be a whale?”

A 73-year-old rebuff of Orwell, the author of “1984” and “Animal Farm,” recently came to light, and he received a belated apology for it on Thursday.

The British Council, which promotes international cultural relations, asked Orwell in 1946 to write an essay on British cuisine, in an effort to persuade European neighbors that the food did not deserve its notoriously poor reputation.