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| Zelda Fitzgerald, age 17 - PD* |
Z = ZELDA Fitzgerald, Author
Theme = Authors, AtoZ
Zelda Fitzgerald (née Sayre; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American socialite and novelist, and the wife of American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda was noted for her beauty and high spirits.
She and Scott became the emblem of the Jazz Age, for which they are still celebrated. The immediate success of Scott's first novel This Side of Paradise (1920) brought them into contact with high society, but their marriage was plagued by wild drinking, infidelity and bitter recriminations. Ernest Hemingway, whom Zelda disliked, blamed her for Scott's declining literary output, though she has also been portrayed as the victim of an overbearing husband.
Zelda first met the future novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in July 1918, when he had volunteered for the army, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan, outside Montgomery. After showing Scott her personal diary, she found out later, that he used verbatim excerpts from it in his novel. At the conclusion of This Side of Paradise, the soliloquy of the protagonist Amory Blaine in the cemetery, for example, is taken directly from her journal.
Scott and Zelda quickly became celebrities of New York, as much for their wild behaviour, as for the success of This Side of Paradise. To their delight, in the pages of the New York newspapers Zelda and Scott had become icons of youth and success—enfants terribles of the Jazz Age.
Zelda received offers to write from other magazines. In June, a piece by Zelda Fitzgerald, "Eulogy on the Flapper," was published in Metropolitan Magazine. The article was intended to be information on the decline of the flapper lifestyle.
In April 1925,in Paris, Scott met Ernest Hemingway, whose career he did much to promote. Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald became firm friends, but Zelda and Hemingway disliked each other from their very first meeting. It was through Hemingway, however, that the Fitzgeralds were introduced to much of the Lost Generation expatriate community: Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Robert McAlmon and others.
In April 1930, Zelda was admitted to a sanatorium in France where, after months of observation and treatment and a consultation with one of Europe's leading psychiatrists, Doctor Eugen Bleuler, she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. After being diagnosed, Zelda was increasingly confined to specialist clinics, and the couple were living apart when Scott died suddenly in 1940. Zelda died later in a fire at the hospital in which she was a resident.
In 1932, while being treated at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Zelda had a swell of creativity. Over the course of her first six weeks at the clinic, she wrote an entire novel and sent it to Scott's publisher, Maxwell Perkins.
When Scott finally read Zelda's book, a week after she'd sent it to Perkins, he was furious. The book was a semi-autobiographical account of the Fitzgeralds' marriage. In letters, Scott berated her and fumed that the novel had drawn upon the autobiographical material that he planned to use in Tender Is the Night, and which would finally see publication in 1934
In its time, however, Zelda's book was not well received by critics. To Zelda's dismay it sold only 1,392 copies, for which she earned $120.73. The failure of Save Me the Waltz, and Scott's scathing criticism of her having written it—he called her "plagiaristic" and a "third-rate writer"—crushed her spirits. It was the only novel she ever published.
On the night of March 10, 1948, a fire broke out in the hospital kitchen. Zelda was locked into a room, awaiting electroshock therapy. The fire moved through the dumbwaiter shaft, spreading onto every floor. The fire escapes were wooden, and caught fire as well. Nine women, including Zelda, died in the fire.
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Save me the Waltz
Zelda Fitzgerald, Author
Save Me the Waltz is the only novel by Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Published in 1932, it is a semi-autobiographical account of her life and marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
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Did you know Zelda Fitzgerald had written a novel? Have you read This Side of Paradise? Zelda's book was written partly as a response to questions which had arisen from F.Scott's book. Were F. Scott's accusations correct? He had used her material without her permission. . .
Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by! Thanks also for visiting my blog during the A to Z. I appreciate it!
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| Cover depticting F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald 'The Beautiful and Damned'** |
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A to Z Challenge - 2016
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.
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| Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge |
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References:
Zelda Fitzgerald Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelda_Fitzgerald
Save Me the Waltz - Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Me_the_Waltz
Cover image of Zelda's book - Public Domain
**The Beautiful and Damned (book cover) See REVIEW here.
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.
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland
IMAGE: Portrait of Zelda, 1919, (PD* = Public Domain)
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.
This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland.
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