TS

  Typescript for “The Rich Boy” from Harold Ober files, bearing Fitzgerald’s final revisions for serial publication, August 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

  Ai

  All the Sad Young Men. New York: Scribner’s, 1926. Copy-text.

  ed

  Editor.

  185.9 De Soto] ed; De Sota

  186.19 bridesmaids] TS; bridesmaid

  201.22 Vanderbilt] ed; Madison

  203.29 imminent] ed; eminent

  204.14 out] TS; on

  204.16 that] TS; they

  207.21 in] TS; of

  235.19 these] ed; this

  259.20 thoughts] ed; thought

  263.22 interrogator] ed; interrogation

  267.21 Hamline] ed; Hamlin

  267.29 shoulders] ed; shoulder

  274.7 Die] ed; Dei

  281.10 1912] ed; 1913

  285.7 elusive] ed; illusive

  289.24 after] MS; after a

  290.6 with a] MS; with

  293.26 laid] MS; had laid

  297.20 bunch over] MS; bunch across over

  Notes

  In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the hard cover edition (the line count includes chapter headings). For biographical information not contained in the Chronology, see David S. Brown, Paradise Lost: A Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2017); Matthew J. Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1981, second revised edition (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002); Scott Donaldson, Fool for Love: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1983, revised edition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012); André Le Vot, F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, translated by William Byron (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983); James R. Mellow, Invented Lives: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984); Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1951, revised edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965); Andrew Turnbull, Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Scribner’s, 1962). For a history of the early versions of The Great Gatsby see the texts published in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 18 vols. (1991–2019): Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby, ed. James L. W. West III (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and The Great Gatsby: An Edition of the Manuscript, ed. James L. W. West III and Don C. Skemer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018). A detailed account of the making of The Great Gatsby and a history of its publication are included in the final volume of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: A Variorum Edition, ed. James L. W. West III (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

  THE GREAT GATSBY

  1.4–8 Then wear . . . Thomas Parke D’Invilliers.] Epigraph composed by Fitzgerald. D’Invilliers is a character in This Side of Paradise, a literary man and one of Amory Blaine’s best friends at Princeton. Fitzgerald based D’Invilliers on American poet John Peale Bishop (1892–1944).

  3.1–3 once again to ZELDA] Fitzgerald had previously dedicated his second book, Flappers and Philosophers (1920), to his wife, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.

  6.25–26 the Dukes of Buccleuch] Ducal house of the Scotts of Buccleuch, granted land by King James II of Scotland in the fifteenth century. The title “Duke of Buccleuch” was created for James Scott, Duke of Monmouth (1649–1685).

  7.1 sent a substitute . . . Civil War] The Enrollment Act of 1863 allowed men in the Northern states who were eligible for conscription to avoid service in the Civil War by hiring a substitute.

  7.5 New Haven] Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut.

  7.21 eighty a month] In 1922, the year in which The Great Gatsby is set, eighty dollars would have had the approximate buying power of thirteen hundred dollars in 2022.

  7.24 an old Dodge] The Dodge Brothers Company of Hamtramck, Michigan, began making cars in 1914. Their Model 30, a four-cylinder passenger vehicle, was meant to compete with the Ford Model T.

  8.11–12 Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas] Midas, in Greek and Roman mythology, a king of Phrygia, who was granted his wish that everything he touched be turned to gold. John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), American financier and banker of the Gilded Age. Gaius Mæcenas (c. 70–8 b.c.e.), Roman statesman, friend and confidant of Augustus, and great literary patron of the “golden” Augustan era who fostered the careers of both Horace and Vergil.

  8.27 the egg in the Columbus story] Apocryphal story concerning Christopher Columbus. Columbus is said to have challenged detractors of his discovery of the “New World” to stand an egg on its end. After they all had failed in the attempt, Columbus smashed one end of the egg against the table.

  9.3 West Egg . . . less fashionable of the two] East Egg and West Egg suggest, respectively, Manhasset Neck (old money) and Great Neck (new money) on Long Island. In the manuscript version of the novel, Jordan gives Tom this description of West Egg: “Most expensive town on Long Island. Full of moving picture people, playrites, singers and cartoonists and kept women. You’d love it.” From October 1922 until April 1924, Fitzgerald and his wife and daughter lived in a rented house on Great Neck.

  10.1 Lake Forest.] A suburb of Chicago on the North Shore of Lake Michigan. Ginevra King, Fitzgerald’s first serious romantic interest, lived in Lake Forest for much of the summer season. Her father, Charles Garfield King, was a successful stockbroker; he kept a string of polo ponies and played in matches at Onwentsia, a country club for the wealthy near Lake Forest.

  12.24 Miss Baker’s] Before World War I, young men and women of the haute bourgeoisie addressed each other as “Mr.” and “Miss”—at least until they became friends. These customs began to fade after the war, but Nick still observes them in the novel.

  13.19 She’s three years old.] The Buchanans were married in June 1919; according to Jordan, their daughter was born ten months later, in April 1920. The child must therefore be two years old when this scene takes place in June 1922. The reading “three years old” originated in the manuscript, where the action of the novel was set at a later date and “three years old” was correct. Fitzgerald failed to adjust the child’s age when he shifted the year to 1922.

  16.15–16 ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by . . . Goddard?”] Tom misremembers the title and author of The Rising Tide of Color against White World-Supremacy (1920), by the American historian and white supremacist Lothrop Stoddard (1883–1950). According to Stoddard’s thesis, a racial world war was inevitable if Africans and Asians were not prevented from migrating to Western nations.

  19.4 Cunard or White Star Line.] The two major British transatlantic passenger lines of Fitzgerald’s era. (In 1934, the two rivals merged to form the Cunard–White Star Line.) The Cunard liners included the Mauretania, the Aquitania, and the Berengaria; the White Star liners, which were known for their black-topped funnels, included the Olympic, the Britannic, and the ill-fated Titanic.

  20.11–12 I woke up . . . ether] During the 1920s, halogenated ether was a commonly used anesthetic. Daisy would have been unconscious during childbirth.

  21.2–3 the Saturday Evening Post—] The most popular middle-class magazine of the period and Fitzgerald’s most dependable market for short fiction during the peak years of his career.

  21.17 Jordan Baker.”] Jordan Baker’s name combines the titles of two early automobile manufacturers. Both produced vehicles aimed at female buyers. The Jordan Motor Car Company (1916–1931) in Cleveland was known for its stylish runabouts; the Baker Motor Vehicle Company (1899–1914), also based in Cleveland, specialized in electric two-seaters, ideal for use in town.

  21.19 rotogravure pictures] Rotogravure was a printing process using intaglio cylinders on a rotary press. Here, “rotogravure” refers to the illustrated supplement found in most Sunday newspapers of the day, featuring printed images of celebrities, society people, stage and movie stars, and sports figures.

  21.20 Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach.] Luxury resorts known for their golf courses, in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Florida.

  25.14–15 the eyes . . . T. J. Eckleburg.] Likely suggested by a painting, a gouache on paper by the illustrator Francis Cugat, that Fitzgerald saw in the Scribner’s offices before departing for France in May 1924. In late August, while at work on the manuscript of the novel, he wrote to Maxwell Perkins: “For Christs sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me. I’ve written it into the book.” Cugat’s painting, which depicts a woman’s eyes hovering over an amusement-park scene, was used on the front panel of the first-edition dust jacket.

  28.22 Town Tattle] A fictional magazine. Cf. Town Topics, a New York gossip rag known for printing scandalous stories about the rich and celebrated, published from 1885 to 1937.

  29.4 John D. Rockefeller] American business magnate and wealthiest American of the twentieth century (1839–1937), known for his philanthropy and for his Social Darwinist beliefs. He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870.

  30.26 “Simon Called Peter,”] Scandalous best-selling novel of 1921 by British author Robert Keable (1887–1927). The protagonist is an army chaplain who loses his morals and ideals while serving on the front during World War I. In letters to Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald expressed nervousness about the reference.

  34.4 Kaiser Wilhelm’s.] Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941), the last German emperor, who abdicated in November 1918 at the end of World War I after losing the support of the German army. He spent the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands.

  39.9 the morning Tribune] The New-York Tribune, founded by Horace Greeley in 1841, the leading Republican newspaper in the country and the chief rival of The New York Times. The Tribune merged with the New York Herald in 1924 to form the New York Herald-Tribune.

  40.7 aquaplanes] Aquaplaning was a water sport popular before the advent of waterskiing. The participant, either standing or kneeling, rode a flat board towed behind a motorboat.

  41.28–29 moving her hands like Frisco] In the dancing style of Joe Frisco (1889–1958), a comedian popular during the 1920s. Frisco was famous for a soft-shoe shuffle, of his own invention, called the “Frisco Dance.” Beginning in 1918, he was featured in The Midnight Frolic, a late-night floor show staged by the impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (1867–1932) on the rooftop of Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre. He performed also in Vanities, a Broadway girly-leggy variety show produced by Earl Carroll (1893–1948).

  42.2–3 Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Follies.] Gilda Gray (1901–1959), born Marianna Michalska, was a Polish American dancer and cabaret singer who popularized the “shimmy” in the 1920s when she performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, a Broadway revue with revealing costumery and elaborate sets. The shimmy was characterized by movement of the shoulders and hips (“I’m shaking my shimmy, that’s what I’m doing,” Gray explained).

  46.16 “Stoddard Lectures.”] John L. Stoddard (1850–1931), an American author and popular performer on the lecture circuit. He was among the first to use the stereopticon in his presentations. His travelogues, comprising ten volumes and five supplements, were issued in a uniform edition beginning in 1897.

  46.18 a regular Belasco] David Belasco (1853–1931), a Broadway dramatist and producer, was known for creating lifelike illusions onstage. Among his best-known productions were Lord Chumley in 1888 and The Girl of the Golden West in 1905.

  46.19–20 didn’t cut the pages.] In the early twentieth century, some books were still issued with untrimmed edges. Progressing through the book, the reader separated the leaves from one another with a paper knife or letter-opener.

  48.6 hydroplane] Here, a fixed-wing aircraft that could take off and land on water.

  50.9–10 Mr. Vladimir Tostoff’s . . . Carnegie Hall] The Russian jazz musician Vladimir Tostoff is a fictional invention. George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1923) and other works of serious jazz made their world premieres at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

  54.6 a long duster] A lightweight overcoat worn by drivers and passengers for protection against engine exhaust and dirt from the roads.

  56.18 the Yale Club—] A private New York club for graduates and faculty of Yale University. It was located at the corner of Vanderbilt and East 44th Street.

  56.23 the old Murray Hill Hotel] Late Victorian New York hotel that was razed in 1947. The Murray Hill Hotel had one entrance on Park Avenue opposite Grand Central Station and another entrance on 40th Street. According to one 1920s guidebook, the atmosphere inside was “heavily gracious.”

  60.7 Von Hindenburg] Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934), field marshal of the German armed forces during World War I. After the war he served as president of the Weimar Republic (1925–1934).

  63.1 the dashboard] Narrow platform fixed beneath each car door. Later, it was called a “running-board.”

  65.2 the Bois de Boulogne] Wooded area of over two thousand acres, lying just west of Paris, originally designated by Napoleon III in the 1850s as a recreational space for the upper classes. By the early 1900s “Le Bois” had been transformed into a public park for the bourgeoisie, with areas for rowing, riding, and picnicking.

  65.5 Argonne Forest] Forest in northeastern France, 135 miles east of Paris, through which American troops pushed in the final offensive of World War I, known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which lasted from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. American troops sustained more than 110,000 casualties.

  65.6–10 so far forward . . . of dead.] Gatsby’s exploits are based on the story of the “Lost Battalion,” a unit of the 77th Division that advanced well beyond its flank support during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The battalion held its ground but at a heavy cost. Of some 554 men, there were only 194 survivors. The Lewis gun, a standard weapon in most American units, was a one-man air-cooled machine gun with a circular cartridge drum.

  65.14–15 Montenegro’s troubled history] Montenegro was among the Allied Powers during the First World War. After the Treaty of Versailles, it was absorbed by Yugoslavia as part of a newly unified Montenegro and Serbia; however, the unification was contested by the exiled king of Montenegro and his supporters.

  65.28 Trinity Quad—] Trinity College, Oxford, founded in 1555, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. On his first trip to Europe, during the spring of 1921, Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, visited Trinity.

  66.6 the Grand Canal] A major waterway through the city of Venice, lined with opulent palaces belonging to the wealthiest Venetian families.

  68.20 “Highballs?”] A whiskey drink, usually mixed with soda water or ginger ale, and served with ice in a tall glass.

  69.2–7 “The old Metropole . . . outside.] Fitzgerald based Wolfshiem’s recollections on the murder of the gangster and bookmaker Herman Rosenthal. The shooting took place on July 16, 1912, in New York, at the Metropole Hotel, 147 West 43rd Street, near Times Square. Accounts of the killing stayed on the front pages of metropolitan newspapers for the rest of the summer.

  72.2 the man who fixed the World’s Series] Racketeer Arnold Rothstein (1882–1928), on whom Wolfshiem is based, is said to have fixed the 1919 World’s Series in the infamous “Black Sox” scandal. Rothstein got wind of a plan by several players on the Chicago White Sox team to throw the series; he therefore bet heavily on the Cincinnati Reds, their opponents. The White Sox lost the series, and Rothstein won more than $300,000. Rothstein was never formally charged with involvement in the swindle, but eight members of the Chicago White Sox, including star outfielder “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and pitcher Eddie Cicotte, were banned for lifetime from baseball for their participation.

  73.3 the Plaza Hotel] The Plaza, among the most fashionable of the New York caravansaries, stands across from the southeast corner of Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street.

  74.16 the armistice] The agreement that ended hostilities between the Allies and Germany in World War I specified that fighting should cease on November 11, 1918, at 11:00 a.m.—the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (Matthew 20:1–16). Here, “after the armistice” means “after the war.”

  74.20 the Seelbach Hotel] A grand hotel in downtown Louisville, designed in the opulent European style, that was operated by immigrant brothers from Bavaria named Louis and Otto Seelbach.

  76.17 a Victoria] A low, light, horse-drawn carriage that had a calash top and, in front, a perch for the driver.

  76.21–24 “I’m the Sheik . . . I’ll creep—”] Lyrics from “The Sheik of Araby,” a hit tune in 1921, with words by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler and music by Ted Snyder. Contemporary readers might also have been reminded of The Sheik, a silent movie of 1921 starring Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926), the first “Latin lover” screen idol. During the early 1920s, romantic young men were often called “sheiks.”

  82.10 The Journal.] The New York Evening Journal, a Hearst newspaper known for its racy, sensationalist reporting. It carried a daily comic-strip page and sold for one cent in 1922. Columnists included O. O. McIntyre and Nellie Bly, with society news provided by Maury Henry Biddle Paul (a.k.a. “Cholly Knickerbocker”).

  82.20 Clay’s “Economics,”] Economics: An Introduction for the General Reader (1916) by British economist and lecturer Henry Clay (1883–1954). Among Clay’s concerns was the redistribution of wealth for the public good.

  83.16 Castle Rackrent.] The ancestral home of the Irish Rackrent family in the novel of the same name by Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849). Castle Rackrent recounts the adventures of three generations of Rackrents. They squander their wealth and eventually lose their tumbledown castle.