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Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Literary Reference to His Life And Work PDF

481 Pages·2007·4.01 MB·English
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CRITICAL COMPANION TO F. Scott Fitzgerald i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd i 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd ii 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM CRITICAL COMPANION TO F. Scott Fitzgerald A Literary Reference to His Life and Work MARY JO TATE Foreword by Matthew J. Bruccoli i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd iii 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work Copyright © 1998, 2007 by Mary Jo Tate All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permis- sion in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-10: 0-8160-6433-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6433-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tate, Mary Jo. Critical companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald : a literary reference to his life and work / Mary Jo Tate ; foreword by Matthew J. Bruccoli. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-6433-4 (acid-free paper) 1. Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896–1940—Encyclopedias. 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography—Encyclopedias. I. Tate, Mary Jo. F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z. II. Title. PS3511.I9Z459 2006 813’.52—dc22 2006011393 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Cover design by Cathy Rincon/Anastasia Plé Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd iv 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM For Forrest, Andrew, Perry, and Thomas i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd v 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd vi 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM C ONTENTS Foreword ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv Part I: Biography 1 Part II: Works A–Z 11 Part III: Related People, Places, and Topics 257 Part IV: Appendices 397 Chronology 399 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Works 405 Zelda Fitzgerald’s Works 422 Works about Fitzgerald 424 Adaptations of Fitzgerald’s Works 440 Index 441 i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd vii 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd viii 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM F OREWORD Iw ish that I had written this volume, but I could rigged by critics and professors. Fitzgerald’s restora- not have done it better than Mary Jo Tate. It is tion was mainly reader-generated. The readers who the essential reference tool for all categories of F. read for pleasure were ahead of the professional Scott Fitzgerald readers: for the celebrated com- reputation-makers. Nor is it the case that Charles mon reader, students, and teachers. Moreover, it is Scribner’s Sons stimulated the revival in order to a readable reference book. Serious Fitzgerald read- sell books. Scribners reprinted Fitzgerald in cloth to ers will make their own connections by going from meet the demand, but the firm had no paperback entry to entry. Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzger- line and did not make The Great Gatsby available ald replaces shelves of books. in a student edition until 1957. But Scribners did This book also provides a reassuring reminder own a piece of Bantam, which reprinted The Great of the staying power of great writing. At the time Gatsby in 1945. People read Fitzgerald because the of Fitzgerald’s death in 1940, the anticipation of people they knew were reading Fitzgerald. People anything like Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzger- kept reading Fitzgerald because they were excited ald would have seemed a fantasy. The newspaper by what they read. Some new readers who dis- obituaries were mainly condescending. Tributes by covered Fitzgerald after World War II were writers his friends and fellow writers expressed regret that or apprentice writers who have acknowledged the Fitzgerald had been prevented from fulfilling his impact of their first encounters with his prose. genius: from writing as much or as well as he could A concomitant of the rediscovery of Fitzgerald’s have—should have—written. But no one publicly writings was the growth of interest in the author. predicted a Fitzgerald revival, except Stephen Vin- He became an American literary culture hero. The cent Benét in his review of The Last Tycoon: “This is attention to Fitzgerald’s life is inevitable. Admira- not a legend, this is a reputation—and seen in per- tion of a masterpiece triggers curiosity about the spective, it may well be one of the most secure rep- masterpiece-maker—especially when the authors utations of our time.” This prediction was regarded had a romantic or dramatic life embracing tri- as hyperbolic in 1941, and Benét was given credit umph and disaster. A reader who knows nothing for generosity toward an unfortunate writer. about Fitzgerald can achieve a rewarding reading In 1945 the Fitzgerald revival was under way; of Gatsby or Tender Is the Night, but knowledge of in the fifties it resembled a resurrection; and in the connections between his life and work enriches the sixties Fitzgerald achieved his stated ambition the reader’s understanding of Fitzgerald’s trans- to “be one of the greatest writers who ever lived.” muted autobiography. Unhappily, literary history Unlike many literary revivals, the posthumous tends to degenerate into literary gossip, and biog- Fitzgerald comeback that raised him to a stature raphy becomes slander. The belittling anecdotes he had not achieved during his writing life was not about Fitzgerald—founded or unfounded—have ix i-xvi_FSFitzgerald-fm.indd ix 2/8/07 3:02:43 PM

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