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An F. Scott Fitzgerald Encyclopedia PDF

543 Pages·1998·2.74 MB·English
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An F. Scott Fitzgerald Encyclopedia Robert L. Gale GreenwoodPress Westport,Connecticut • London LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Gale,RobertL.,1919– AnF.ScottFitzgeraldencyclopedia / RobertL.Gale. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences(p. )andindex. ISBN0–313–30139–5(alk.paper) 1. Fitzgerald,F.Scott(FrancisScott),1896–1940—Encyclopedias. 2. Authors,American—20thcentury—Biography—Encyclopedias. I. Title. PS3511.I9Z6247 1998 813'.52—dc21 [B] 98–13976 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:2)1998byRobertL.Gale Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:98–13976 ISBN:0–313–30139–5 Firstpublishedin1998 GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica TM Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To the Men of the Dartmouth College Class of 1942— Born mostly in Fitzgerald’s Roaring Twenties, We entered Dartmouth with the New England Hurricane of 1938 and continued into World War II Contents Preface ix Chronology xiii Abbreviations xvii The Encyclopedia 1 Bibliography 471 Index 473 Preface F. Scott Fitzgerald is internationally known as the author of The Great Gatsby, which is firmly established as a twentieth-century literary classic, and as the author of several short stories, notably ‘‘Absolution,’’ ‘‘Babylon Revisited,’’ ‘‘CrazySunday,’’‘‘TheDiamondasBigastheRitz,’’‘‘MayDay,’’‘‘TheRich Boy,’’ and ‘‘Winter Dreams,’’ all of which have been widely anthologized.He is also celebrated as a symbol of the Jazz Age and an eponym of the Roaring Twenties, that grand, tragic, pathetic era in American history that lasted from 1918 until shortly after the Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, also participated in that gaudy age, which featured other attractive but dangerously irresponsible ‘‘flappers.’’ Less well known are Fitzgerald’s other novels, including This Side of Para- dise, which started his meteoric rise to sparkling prominence,andTenderIsthe Night, which among other things dramatizes his fall, caused by his ruinous but sometimes delightful personality quirks. Delightful, yes. As a freshman member of the Dartmouth College Class of 1942, I well remember waiting on the handsome Fitzgerald’s table at the Han- over Inn during his alcoholic appearance at our Winter Carnival in February 1939.Withchagrin,Ialsorememberhavingtobetoldlaterwhohewas,because I did not know him from Walter Wanger or Budd Schulberg, also there from Hollywood. It was still later before I began to read, appreciate, and thenrevere hismagicprose,somewhataftertheFitzgeraldrevivalbeganinthe1950s.When IhighlightedFitzgeraldinmyundergraduatelecturecourse,titled‘‘TheRoaring Twenties,’’ beginning in the 1970s at the University of Pittsburgh, he was the most popular figure among the dozens we considered. Still less well known is the fact that Fitzgerald, despite personal and profes- sional difficulties, was almost constantly productive and that in aliterarycareer effectivelybeginningin1919,whenheturnedprofessional,andendingwithhis death only twenty-one years later, he wrote five novels, about 180 short stories x PREFACE (dependingoninclusionofpossible‘‘sketches’’),numerousessaysandreviews, much poetry, several plays, and somefilmscripts.Hewasnotmerelytheauthor of six or eight fictional masterpieces. It is also true that, even when he wrote hastilyandperhapsblearyeyed,sustainedbyginandcoffee,thefinishedproduct almostalwaysbearstracesofhisgenius.Hewasmuchmoreversatilethanmany realize. Moreover, beneath all the roaring-age hoopla and glitter for which his prose is famous lies the realistic warning that, while personal recklessness can bedangerous,theromanticyearningofthehearttowardlovecanberedemptive. Fitzgerald often aimed to preach to as well as entertain his readers. I thinkthat no one who consults this encyclopedia can fail to be struck by Fitzgerald’s bewilderingly numerouscharacters,almostalwaysneatlyetched,byhisdelight- ful imagination and surprising range, and by his often sobering, if whispered, little sermons. This book presents the essential action in Fitzgerald’s novels, short stories, plays,andnarrativepoemsandsummarizesthecoremeaningofhisotherworks. All named fictional characters are identified, and their significance in works in which they appear is indicated. Brief biographical sketchesofFitzgerald’sfam- ily members, friends, and professional associates are included. Ample proof is given that Fitzgerald the author could fall on his face once in a while, as with ‘‘TheAntsatPrinceton’’and‘‘StrangeSanctuary,’’forexample.Piecesmerely attributed to Fitzgerald are not included, even when charming, for example, ‘‘Ethel had her shot of brandy’’ and ‘‘Oui, le backfield est from Paris.’’ For them, and other such omissions, the reader is invited to consult F. Scott Fitz- gerald in His Own Time, a Miscellany, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Jackson R. Bryer (New York: Popular Library, 1971). To save space, I rarely mention discarded titles of works published under different titles, nor do I discuss revisions of texts. Despite our being at table together in 1939, I do not emulate some nervy biographers who refer to Fitz- gerald as Scott. Please excuse my occasionally clipped syntax, alsodesignedto cut wordage. To save still more space, I have tried to keep individual end-of- entry bibliographies to a minimum. Experienced Fitzgerald scholars will rec- ognize my frequent use of facts and occasional use of insights gleaned from publications by others, most notably by the following experts on Fitzgerald’s life and works: Matthew J.Bruccoli,JohnKuehl,BryantMangum,ArthurMiz- ener, Alice Hall Petry, Stephen W. Potts, Jeffrey Meyers, Nancy Milford, and AndrewTurnbull.Ihopemyexpressionofthanks,hereandnow,totheseschol- arly pioneers will disarm any suspicions that I have ungraciously ‘‘borrowed’’ too much. Although this encyclopedia aims primarily to be informational, a few critical judgments are implicit on occasion; and the bibliographies, emphasizing post- 1990materialwhereverpertinent,shouldproveusefultocriticallymindedread- ers. To aid them, items are cross-referenced by being marked with an asterisk (*). Fitzgerald’s titles and characters, which have individual entries, are not so marked. PREFACE xi Despitethedetailincludedinthisencyclopedia,itisnotpossibletodojustice to the complexity of Fitzgerald’s work here. My work is obviously designedto aidreadersbeginningtoappreciateFitzgerald,moreexperiencedreadersinhigh school,college,anduniversityclassesstudyinghisworks,andgraduatestudents, seasonedteachers,andscholarsseekingquickreviewsofprimaryandsecondary data or desiring to refresh their memories of previous readings. To appreciate Fitzgerald’sstyle,verve,imagery,humor,andsubstantivedepths,onemustturn to his own pages and nothing else. For kindness and encouragement I offer thanks to the following colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh: H. David Brumble III, Bruce Dobler, Frederick A. Hetzel, and Philip E. Smith. Also I owe much to several Pitt librarians, especiallyLaurieCohen,ElizabethA.Evans,AnneW.Gordon,AmyE.Knapp, and Marie Mazzocco Scipione. My editors George F. Butler and Betty C. Pes- sagno of Greenwood Press and copyeditor Lynn E. Wheeler have also been unfailingly helpful. Unique accolades must be accorded Matthew J. Bruccoli, for his F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography (rev. ed., Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987), a monumental, standard-setting bibliog- raphy, without which no one can trace Fitzgerald’s more elusive publications. Finally,muchloveandgratitudetomywife,Maureen,andourimmediatefamily members—John, Jim, Christine, and Bill.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most challenging authors of American literature. He is known internationally as the author of The Great Gatsby (1925), a twentieth-century literary classic studied by high school students and scholars alike. But Fitzgerald was an amazingly productive writer despite
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