Anyhow I think (for the first time since The Vegetable failed) that I’m a wonderful writer + its your always wonderful letters that help me to go on believing in myself.

  Now some practical, very important questions. Please answer every one.

  Montenegro has an order called The Order of Danilo. Is there any possible way you could find out for me there what it would look like—whether a courtesy decoration given to an American would bear an English inscription—or anything to give versimilitude to the medal which sounds horribly amateurish.

  Please have no blurbs of any kind on the jacket!!! No Mencken or Lewis or Sid Howard or anything. I don’t believe in them one bit any more.

  Don’t forget to change name of book in list of works

  Please shift exclamation point from end of 3d line to end of 4th line in title page. Please! Important!

  I thought that the whole episode (2 paragraphs) about their playing the Jazz History of the world at Gatsby’s first party was rotten. Did you? Tell me frank reaction—personal. Don’t think! We can all think!

  [ . . . . ]

  I still owe the store almost $700 on my Encyclopedia but I’ll pay them on about Jan 10th—all in a lump as I expect my finances will then be on a firm footing. Will you ask them to send me Ernest Boyd’s book? Unless it has about my drinking in it that would reach my family. However, I guess it’d worry me more if I hadn’t seen it than if I had. If my book is a big success or a great failure (financial—no other sort can be imagined, I hope) I don’t want to publish stories in the fall. If it goes between 25,000 and 50,000 I have an excellent collection for you. This is the longest letter I’ve written in three or four years. Please thank Mr. Scribner for me for his exceeding kindness.

  Always yours

  Scott Fitz——

  TO: Maxwell Perkins

  c. January 15, 1925

  American Express Co.

  Rome.

  Dear Max:

  Proof hasn’t arrived yet. Have been in bed for a week with grippe but I’m ready to attack it violently. Here are two important things.

  In the scene in Myrtes appartment—in the place where Tom + Myrtle dissapear for awhile noticeably raw. Does it stick out enough so that the censor might get it. Its the only place in the book I’m in doubt about on that score. Please let me know right away

  Please have no quotations from any critics whatsoever on the jacket—simply your own blurb on the back and don’t give away too much of the idea—especially don’t connect Daisy + Gatsby (I need the quality of surprise there) Please be very general.

  These points are both very important. Do drop me a line about them. Wish I could see your new house. I havn’t your faith in Will James—I feel its old material without too much feeling or too new a touch.

  As Ever,

  Scott

  Jan. 20, 1925

  Dear Scott:

  I am terribly rushed for time so I am answering your letter as briefly and rapidly as I can,—but I will have a chance to write to tell you the news, etc. etc., soon.

  First as to the jazz history of the world:—that did jar on me unfavorably. And yet in a way it pleased me as a tour de force, but one not completely successful. Upon the whole, I should probably have objected to it in the first place except that I felt you needed something there in the way of incident, something special. But if you have something else, I would take it out.

  You are beginning to get me worried about the scene in Myrtle’s apartment for you have spoken of it several times. It never occurred to me to think there was any objection to it. I am sure there is none. No censor could make an issue on that,—nor I think on anything else in the book.

  I will be sure not to use any quotations and I will make it very general indeed, because I realize that not much ought to be said about the story. I have not thought what to say, but we might say something very brief which gave the impression that nothing need any longer be said.

  I certainly hope the proofs have got to you and that you have been at work on them for some time. If not you had better cable. They were sent first-class mail. The first lot on December 27th and the second lot on December 30th.

  Yours,

  [Max]

  P.S. The mysterious hand referred to in the immemorial phrase is that of the typesetter.

  TO: Maxwell Perkins

  Hotel des Princes

  Rome, Italy

  January 24. 1925

  (But address the American Express Co.

  because its damn cold here and we may leave any day.

  Dear Max:

  This is a most important letter so I’m having it typed. Guard it as your life.

  1)

  Under a separate cover I’m sending the first part of the proof. While I agreed with the general suggestions in your first letters I differ with you in others. I want Myrtle Wilson’s breast ripped off—its exactly the thing, I think, and I don’t want to chop up the good scenes by too much tinkering. When Wolfshiem says “sid” for “said”, it’s deliberate. “Orgastic” is the adjective from “orgasm” and it expresses exactly the intended ecstasy. It’s not a bit dirty. I’m much more worried about the disappearance of Tom and Myrtle on galley 9—I think it’s all right but I’m not sure. If it isn’t please wire and I’ll send correction.

  2)

  Now about the page proof—under certain conditions never mind sending them (unless, of course, there’s loads of time, which I suppose there isn’t. I’m keen for late March or early April publication)

  The conditions are two.

  1)a)

  That someone reads it very carefully twice to see that every one of my inserts are put in correctly. There are so many of them that I’m in terror of a mistake.

  1)b)

  That no changes whatsoever are made in it except in the case of a misprint so glaring as to be certain, and that only by you.

  If there’s some time left but not enough for the double mail send them to me and I’ll simply wire O.K. which will save two weeks. However don’t postpone for that. In any case send me the page proof as usual just to see.

  3)

  Now, many thanks for the deposit. Two days after wiring you I had a cable from Reynolds that he’d sold two stories of mine for a total of $3,750. but before that I was in debt to him and after turning down the ten thousand dollars from College Humor I was afraid to borrow more from him until he’d made a sale. I won’t ask for any more from you until the book has earned it. My guess is that it will sell about 80,000 copies but I may be wrong. Please thank Mr. Charles Scribner for me. I bet he thinks he’s caught another John Fox now for sure. Thank God for John Fox. It would have been awful to have had no predecessor.

  4)

  This is very important. Be sure not to give away any of my plot in the blurb. Don’t give away that Gatsby dies or is a parvenu or crook or anything. It’s a part of the suspense of the book that all these things are in doubt until the end. You’ll watch this won’t you? And remember about having no quotations from critics on the jacket—not even about my other books!

  5)

  This is just a list of small things.

  1)a)

  What’s Ring’s title for his spring book?

  1)b)

  Did O’Brien star my story Absolution or any of my others on his trash-album?

  1)c)

  I wish your bookkeeping department would send me an account on Feb. 1st. Not that it gives me pleasure to see how much in debt I am but that I like to keep a yearly record of the sales of all my books.

  Do answer every question and keep this letter until the proof comes. Let me know how you like the changes. I miss seeing you, Max, more than I can say.

  As ever,

  Scott

  P.S. I’m returning the proof of the title page ect. It’s O.K. but my heart tells me I should have named it Trimalchio. However against all the advice I suppose it would have been stupid and stubborn of me. Trimalchio in West Egg was only a compromise. Gatsby is too much like Babbit and The Great Gatsby is weak because there’s no emphasis even ironically on his greatness or lack of it. However let it pass.

  TO: Maxwell Perkins

  c. February 18, 1925

  New Address: Hotel Tiberio

  Capri

  Dear Max:

  After six weeks of uninterrupted work the proof is finished and the last of it goes to you this afternoon. On the whole its been very successful labor

  (1.) I’ve brought Gatsby to life

  (2.) I’ve accounted for his money

  (3.) I’ve fixed up the two weak chapers (VI and VII)

  (4.) I’ve improved his first party

  (5.) I’ve broken up his long narrative in Chap. VIII

  This morning I wired you to hold up the galley of Chap 40. The correction—and God! its important because in my other revision I made Gatsby look too mean—is enclosed herewith. Also some corrections for the page proof.

  We’re moving to Capri. We hate Rome, I’m behind financially and have to write three short stories. Then I try another play, and by June, I hope, begin my new novel.

  Had long interesting letters from Ring and John Bishop. Do tell me if all corrections have been recieved. I’m worried

  Scott

  I hope you’re setting publication date at first possible moment.

  Feb. 24, 1925

  Dear Scott:

  I congratulate you on resisting the $10,000. I don’t see how you managed it. But it delighted us, for otherwise book publication would have been deferred until too late in the spring. . . . Those [changes] you have made do wonders for Gatsby,—in making him visible and palpable. You’re right about the danger of meddling with the high spots—instinct is the best guide there. I’ll have the proofs read twice, once by Dunn and once by Roger, and shall allow no change unless it is certain the printer has blundered. I know the whole book so well myself that I could hardly decide wrongly. But I won’t decide anything if there is ground for doubt.

  Ring Lardner came back last week from Nassau looking brown and well, with the page proof of his new book—“What of It”. I’ll send you a copy soon. That and “How to Write Short Stories,” “Alibi Ike,” “The Big Town,” and “Gullible’s Travels,” with new prefaces, constitute the set. I simply could not get Ring to pay enough attention to it to reorganize the material as we might have done. I tried to work out a book to contain “Symptoms of Being 35” and some of the shorter things; but without the war material—which, good as it was, seems dreadfully old now—there was not enough. And the subscription agents wanted to retain the familiar titles for their canvassing. “How to Write Short Stories” has sold 16,500 copies and it continues steadily to sell: the new book and the old books in new forms and wrappers, in the trade, will give it new impetus. We’ll have a wonderful Ring Lardner window when we get all these books out.

  As for Hemingway: I finally got his “In our time” which accumulates a fearful effect through a series of brief episodes, presented with economy, strength and vitality. A remarkable, tight, complete expression of the scene, in our time, as it looks to Hemingway. I have written him that we wish he would write us about his plans and if possible send a ms.; but I must say I have little hope that he will get the letter,—so hard was it for me to get his book. Do you know his address?

  [ . . . . ]

  As ever,

  [Max]

  Chronology

  1896

  Born September 24 at his parents’ home at 481 Laurel Avenue, in St. Paul, Minnesota, first surviving child of Mollie McQuillan Fitzgerald and Edward Fitzgerald. Named Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald after the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” his father’s second cousin three times removed. Mother, born 1860 in St. Paul, is the eldest of five children of successful grocery wholesaler who at his death in 1877 left an estate of more than $250,000 and a large Victorian home on Summit Avenue, St. Paul’s most fashionable street. Father, born in 1853 in Rockville, Maryland, is a furniture manufacturer. They had two daughters who died, aged three and one, earlier in 1896.

  1898

  When furniture business fails, family moves to Buffalo, New York, where father takes a job as a wholesale grocery salesman for Procter & Gamble.

  1901

  Father transferred by Procter & Gamble to Syracuse, New York, and family moves in January. Sister Annabel born in July.

  1902

  Enrolls in Miss Goodyear’s School in September.

  1903

  Family moves back to Buffalo. Attends school at Holy Angels Convent.

  1905

  Transfers to Miss Nardin’s private Catholic school. Reads The Scottish Chiefs, Ivanhoe, and the adventure novels of G. A. Henty.

  1908

  Father loses his job at Procter & Gamble in March and in July family moves back to St. Paul, where at first they live with the McQuillans and then in a series of rented homes, eventually settling at 599 Summit Avenue. Enters St. Paul Academy in September.

  1909

  Publishes first story, “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage,” in Now and Then, the St. Paul Academy school paper, in October.

  1910

  Publishes two more stories in Now and Then, “Reade, Substitute Right Half” (February) and “A Debt of Honor” (March).

  1911

  Publishes story “The Room with the Green Blinds” in the June Now and Then. In August, writes and plays the lead in a play, The Girl from Lazy J, for the Elizabethan Dramatic Club, local amateur theatrical group. Because of poor grades at St. Paul Academy, is sent in September to boarding school at the Newman School in Hackensack, New Jersey, where his boastful and domineering personality makes him unpopular. Takes frequent trips to New York City and attends theater often, seeing Ina Claire in The Quaker Girl and Gertrude Bryant in Little Boy Blue. Publishes poem “Football” in Christmas issue of the school magazine, the Newman News.

  1912–13

  Writes another play, The Captured Shadow, which is produced by the Elizabethan Dramatic Club in the summer of 1912. Publishes three stories in the Newman News during the 1912–13 school year. Meets Father Cyril Sigourney Webster Fay, prominent Catholic priest, who becomes a mentor. During a visit to Father Fay in Washington, meets Henry Adams and Anglo-Irish writer Shane Leslie. Despite failing four courses in two years at the Newman School, Fitzgerald takes entrance examination for Princeton University in May 1913. Writes play Coward for Elizabethan Dramatic Club in July. Grandmother McQuillan dies in August, leaving his mother enough money for his college tuition. Enters Princeton in September as member of Class of 1917.

  1914

  Meets John Peale Bishop and Edmund Wilson, fellow students at Princeton. In January his book and lyrics for Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi! win the competition for the 1914–15 Triangle Club show. Contributes to the Princeton Tiger, the college humor magazine. Reads and admires the social reform writings of H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw and Compton Mackenzie’s novel Sinister Street. Writes fourth and last play for the Elizabethan Dramatic Club, Assorted Spirits, during summer. Returns to Princeton in September but is ineligible for extracurricular activities because of poor grades and cannot act in Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi! during the fall semester.

  1915

  Meets Ginevra King, sixteen-year-old from socially prominent Lake Forest, Illinois, family, while home for Christmas vacation. Falls in love with her and writes to her almost daily after he returns to Princeton. Elected secretary of the Triangle Club in February after his grades improve; later in the term is selected for the Cottage Club and for the editorial board of the Tiger. Story “Shadow Laurels” is published in the Nassau Literary Magazine (the Lit) in April, followed in June by “The Ordeal.” Writes the lyrics (Edmund Wilson writes the book) for The Evil Eye, the 1915–16 Triangle Club show. Takes Ginevra King to the Princeton prom in June. In the fall, his low grades again make him ineligible for campus activities. Takes French literature course taught by Christian Gauss and begins lifelong friendship with Gauss, who later becomes Dean of the College. Continues to write for the Tiger. In November, falls ill and leaves college for the remainder of the semester to recuperate (illness is diagnosed as malaria, but may have been mild case of tuberculosis).

  1916

  Spends the spring in St. Paul on a leave of absence from Princeton; publishes poem “To My Unused Greek Book” in the Lit. Continues courtship of Ginevra King, whom he visits in Lake Forest in August. Returns to Princeton in September to repeat his junior year and writes the lyrics for the Triangle Club show, Safety First, in which he is again ineligible to perform. Attends Princeton–Yale football game with King in November.

  1917

  Courtship of Ginevra King ends in January. Publishes play “The Debutante,” whose title character is modeled on King, in the Lit. During spring semester, his writing appears another twelve times in the Lit (four stories, three poems, and five reviews of books by Shane Leslie, E. F. Benson, H. G. Wells, and Booth Tarkington). In May, a month after the U.S. enters World War I, signs up for three weeks of intensive military training and takes exam for infantry commission. During summer in St. Paul, reads William James, Schopenhauer, and Bergson. While waiting for his commission, returns to Princeton in September and rooms with John Biggs, Jr., editor of the Tiger, and continues to contribute to both the Tiger and the Lit. Receives commission as second lieutenant in the infantry and in November reports for training to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Expecting that he will eventually be killed in combat, begins writing a novel.