F = FITZGERALD, F. Scott, Author - A-Z Blog Tour 2016

You've heard of the jazzy 1920s, when Flappers were dancing in clubs and college men wore raccoon coats. Fitzgerald was in Paris with Hemingway and other authors of the expatriate community. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald, c. 1921, PD

F = Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Author
Theme = Authors A2Z


Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, born September 24, 1896 and died from a heart attack December 21, 1940, was an American novelist who also wrote short stories. His works are paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. He is considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century and a member of the Lost Generation of the 1920s. 

He finished four novels This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. A fifth novel The Love of the Last Tycoon was unfinished. 

The Romantic Egoist, recast as This Side of Paradise, a semi-autobiographical account of Fitzgerald's undergraduate years at Princeton. His revised novel was accepted by Scribner's in the fall of 1919 and was published on March 26, 1920 and became an instant success, It launched Fitzgerald's career as a writer and provided a steady income. Fitzgerald and Zelda were married at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Their daughter and only child, Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald, was born on October 26, 1921.

Paris in the 1920s proved the most influential decade of Fitzgerald's development. Fitzgerald made several excursions to Europe, mostly Paris and the French Riviera, and became friends with many members of the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, however, did not get on well with Zelda,

Fitzgerald, an alcoholic since college, became notorious during the 1920s for his extraordinarily heavy drinking, undermining his health by the late 1930s. He did have recurring tuberculosis, and suffered a mild attack of tuberculosis in 1919, and in 1929 he had "what proved to be a tubercular hemorrhage."

The last years of Fitzgerald's life and his affair with Sheilah Graham, the Hollywood gossip columnist, was the theme of the movie Beloved Infidel (1959) based on Graham's 1958 memoir by the same name. 


Portrayals of Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald and Zelda in Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald appear alongside Ernest Hemingway, Hadley Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound in the novel The Paris Wife by Paula McLain 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons was the basis for a 2008 film.

Fitzgerald's own life from 1937 to 1940 was dramatized in Beloved Infidel.

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The books I have read and reviewed: Tender is the Night, The Last Tycoon, This Side of Paradise.

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Have you read any of the books mentioned here by Fitzgerald or any books about him? 

Please leave a comment so I know you were here, and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!

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A to Z Challenge

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

The Badge

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References

Photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald c. 1921
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923. "The World's Work",

PD = Public Domain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald Wiki on Fitzgerald.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's Last Novel - A Review

. . .and a Mini-Liebster. Have you ever wondered what the studio life was like for someone working there in the 1920s and 1930s, when cinema was young?

The Last Tycoon

The Last Tycoon, F. S. Fitzgerald, cover for Penguin Canada

In this interesting tale of Hollywood during the 'reign of producers' in the late 1930s, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us the behind-the-scene life of the producers, the stars and their circling firmament of support people in the film industry: writers, actors and extras, technical wizards in production and the executive (money) of the studios. Fitzgerald spent the second half of the 1930s in Hollywood employed by MGM, working on commercial short stories, and scripts while penning his final novel, published as The Last Tycoon. Originally, the title for the movie was The Love of the Last Tycoon.


Cecilia Brady, the daughter of one of the film producers relates what she sees and what she guesses. As a narrator, she has an ideal vantage point, bringing to the story her insider's interpretation of the events and the people living the 'Hollywood' studio life.


In the beginning of the story, Cecilia introduces us to the main characters, Stahr, herself, her father, and the writers. These are the 'regulars' around the studio, the focus of the novel, however, is on Monroe Stahr, a producer of the Golden Age variety, who took an interest other than monetary, in the quality of the movies he was producing.


Then, Stahr meets the One. She looks like his beloved dead wife, Minna. He finds her after much searching, she exists on the outer edges, not a member of the film industry. Their mini-story uplifts the last half of the book that Fitzgerald completed.


At this point, the manuscript stops with the untimely death of Fitzgerald. The synopsis he left behind is used to show the reader what he had planned to do with the end of the novel. A letter indicates he considered serializing the novel, something many authors are considering in today's world. Fitzgerald wanted to show the industry in all its glory, but also to reveal some of the shoddiness beneath.


Fitzgerald gave us a semi-realistic look at a fantasy business. I liked this book, and the main character, Monroe Stahr. You might like it, too.


***And Now, for something completely different. . .


The MINI-Liebster

The lovely Suze included me on her list of bloggers for the Liebster Award and since it was Mother's Day, I decided to do a mini-version.

Thanks to Suze, an award I can't refuse. Why? Go look at the distinguished company listed at Suze's place, 'Sublimininal Coffee', after you've finished reading here.

For a quick run down of the rules for the Liebster Award, and to use the badge if you'd like to, please click here.


One unknown thing about me?

I've had three close calls with extreme danger, all auto related.

In a car accident with 3 friends in my teens, I was a passenger. My side of the car narrowly missed a tree when our rear fender was winged by a drunk driver running the light. Our car spun in a circle and up an embankment towards the tree.

As a kid, the way I usually walked to the corner store was down the sidewalk on the main road. On this day, I walked the back way which was a little cooler (in the US south in the muggy summer). Just a whim. On my way back I saw a lot of people in front of one of the houses next to ours, and went to see what the problem was. A car had run up onto the front sidewalk crashing into the utility pole.

Another car accident: riding in hubs sports car years ago, we stopped behind a car turning, but the car behind us didn't see us until too late.  We could hear the screeching tires and braced ourselves for the impact. (one of those moments when you feel like Wiley Coyote). We were the filling in the sandwich of cars. Evasive action helped.

I hope there's no pattern forming here. . .

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Liebster Mini-questions:

Where are you living now? Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

What book are you reading now?
Two books, Roland Yoeman's 'The Bear with Two Shadows' and 'Three Spirit Knight'.

Greatest struggle as a writer? The administration part. My creative half rebels.

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I don't usually do Two-for-One Posts, so I apologize for the length. Hope you have time to comment.

Have you read this novel by Fitzgerald? Do you like books about the Hollywood industry and the background of movies?

Thanks for dropping by if you came here from the Liebster List and please continue checking out the other blogs on Suze's list.

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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald The Author, The Fitzgerald

 http://subliminalcoffee.blogspot.ca/ Suze's Blog

F. Scott Fitzgerald - This Side of Paradise

In a time when class distinction determined how you would marry . . . comes a story about a young man at one of the Ivy League schools, Princeton.

 

This Side of Paradise cover, by F.S. Fitzgerald

This Side of Paradise


Fitzgerald started writing about the adventures of Armory Blaine at Princeton at approximately the same time he enlisted, in 1917. He attended Princeton between 1913-1916. The war ended before he could embark for Europe. While at Princeton, he gained membership in one of the better clubs, and wrote articles for the campus paper.

Armory Blaine, the main character in This Side of Paradise, partipates with reckless abandon in his college years at Princeton. Poetry readings, drama productions, and drunken escapades into nearby towns kept him busy. During this time, women were becoming more bold - kissing, smoking and ignoring the rules of their Victorian mothers.




This Side of Paradise, Library book, pub. UK

For those who like poetry, Fitzgerald has included many verses. There is a great chronology of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life in the front of the book. This Side of Paradise was published on March 26, 1920. The first printing sold out. A few days later, Scott Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre in New York on April 3, 1920.

Two other titles by Fitzgerald are The Great Gatsby, and Tender is the Night.  Summary: I preferred Tender is the Night.

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Have you read any of Fitzgerald's books? Does the time period, late '1800s - early 1900s', interest you?
Please share in the comments and thanks for visiting.

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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald  F. Scott Fitzgerald


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Side_of_Paradise This Side of Paradise

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