The great gatsby and rel.., p.34
The Great Gatsby & Related Stories,
p.34
308.18 Havelock Ellis “Dance of Life”] The Dance of Life (1923), by the English physician, writer, and eugenicist Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), advocates self-development through a variety of activities, including meditation, writing, and dance.
308.19 Struthers Burt] Maxwell Struthers Burt (1882–1954), American poet and fiction writer, and fellow Princetonian and friend of Fitzgerald. Burt’s first novel, The Interpreter’s House, was published by Scribner’s in 1924.
309.8–12 Hemingway . . . the real thing.] American novelist and short-story writer Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was then living in Paris with his wife, Hadley Richardson Hemingway, and their newborn son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway. Ezra Pound (1885–1972) had published six prose vignettes by Hemingway in the Spring 1923 issue of The Little Review. By the date of this letter Fitzgerald would have seen Hemingway’s two small-press books published in Paris: Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923) and in our time (1924), the former published by Robert McAlmon’s Contact Publishing and the latter part of Ezra Pound’s “Inquest” series (an “Inquest into the state of contemporary English prose”) for William Bird’s Three Mountains Press.
309.15–16 Stalling’s book . . . whine appealingly.] The autobiographical novel Plumes (1924) by the American author Lawrence Stallings (1894–1968) depicts the physical and mental anguish of a wounded World War I veteran. The book was the basis for King Vidor’s 1925 film The Big Parade.
310.16 Whitney Darrow] Head of the sales department at Scribner’s.
310.22–23 Mencken’s or Lewis’ or Howard’s] H. L. Mencken (1880–1956), American journalist and critic; Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), American novelist; Sidney Howard (1891–1939), American playwright and screenwriter.
310.25–26 About serialization. . . . Hearsts . . . Long] In January 1923 Fitzgerald signed a contract with the Hearst organization giving them an option on all the short stories he would produce that year. The contract also granted Hearst first refusal on the serial rights for Fitzgerald’s next novel. Ray Long (1878–1935) was the editor of Cosmopolitan, a Hearst magazine.
311.3 Liberty] An American weekly illustrated magazine, founded earlier in 1924, that competed with The Saturday Evening Post. It was promoted as “A Weekly Periodical for Everyone.”
311.15 Reynolds] Paul Revere Reynolds (1864–1944), head of Paul R. Reynolds and Son, the literary agency that handled Fitzgerald’s magazine fiction until 1929, when Fitzgerald followed Harold Ober after he left Reynolds to open his own agency.
312.8 “Paradise”] This Side of Paradise (1920), Fitzgerald’s first novel.
312.11–17 the title . . . the wrap.] Perkins refers to “Trimalchio in West Egg,” one of several provisional titles for The Great Gatsby. The title alludes to a character in Petronius’s Satyricon—a freed slave known for his lavish parties. If published under that title, an explanatory note in the jacket copy would have been necessary. See also note 110.4.
314.5–6 Mr. Scribner and of Louise—] Charles Scribner II (1854–1930), president of the publishing firm bearing his father’s name, and Louise Saunders Perkins (1887–1965), wife of Maxwell Perkins.
316.9–15 P.S. Why . . . lower royalty . . . the other.] The eventual contract between Fitzgerald and Scribner’s for The Great Gatsby, dated December 22, 1924, gave the author a royalty of 15 percent of the retail price for the first 40,000 copies sold and 20 percent thereafter. No mention is made in the contract of subsidiary rights; by custom these were divided equally between author and publisher.
318.1 the cowboy book] Cowboys North and South (1924) by Canadian American writer Will James (1892–1942). It was the first of many books by James about the American West that Scribner’s would publish.
318.5 Simon called Peter—] See note 30.26.
318.14 Bunny] Nickname for Fitzgerald’s Princeton friend Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), now a young journalist and book critic. At Fitzgerald’s request, Wilson had previously read the manuscript of The Beautiful and Damned, giving him advice about language and style in the novel.
318.21 Galsworthy] John Galsworthy (1867–1933), English novelist whose books were published in the U.S. by Scribner’s. Fitzgerald and Zelda had met Galsworthy in the spring of 1921 on their first trip to England.
319.11–12 new novel] Fitzgerald would begin work in the spring of 1925 on a novel of matricide, set on the French Riviera. Among his working titles: “Our Type,” “The Boy Who Shot His Mother,” and “The World’s Fair.” The novel would eventually be published by Scribner’s in 1934 as Tender Is the Night.
319.16–20 Thanks enormously . . . on Gatsby] Fitzgerald refers to his advance against royalties for The Great Gatsby.
319.26–27 most expensive affairs since Madame Bovary.] Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a compulsive reviser of his own writing. His revisions in proof for Madame Bovary (1857) were especially heavy. Fitzgerald did in fact make major revisions to The Great Gatsby in galley proofs.
320.5–8 Ring’s + Tom’s . . . since Babbit] Fitzgerald refers to Ring Lardner’s How to Write Short Stories (1924), Thomas Boyd’s Through the Wheat (1923), Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady (1923), Edna Ferber’s So Big (1924), and Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt (1922).
320.29 the man I had in mind] Likely newspaperman Herbert Bayard Swope (1882–1958), who was living in a rented mansion on East Shore Road in Great Neck, near Ring Lardner’s residence, during the period in which Fitzgerald was renting a cottage on Long Island and working on the early chapters of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald attended elaborate parties at Swope’s mansion, which had fifteen bedrooms, a seven-car garage, and a guest house.
321.2–5 Shaw-Desmond-trash . . . bad bets] The Irish novelist and playwright Shaw Desmond (1887–1960) was a proponent of spiritualism and a student of fairy lore and the occult. Scribner’s published Desmond’s The Drama of Sinn Fein in 1923.
321.7 Fuller Magee case] High-profile criminal trial of 1923 in which the New York stockbrokers Edward W. Fuller and William F. McGee pled guilty to using their firm as a “bucket shop”—a brokerage that permits gambling on the rise and fall of stocks without purchasing or selling any shares. The racketeer Arnold Rothstein (1882–1928), the model for Meyer Wolfshiem in The Great Gatsby, was believed to have been involved in the machinations.
321.11 the brother in “Salt” + Hurstwood in “Sister Carrie”] Leslie Wagstaff, half brother to Griffith Adams, in Salt; or the Education of Griffith Adams (1919), by Charles G. Norris (1881–1945), and George Hurstwood in Sister Carrie (1900), by Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945).
321.16 Edith Cummings] Cummings (1899–1984) was a Chicago socialite and friend of Ginevra King, Fitzgerald’s first serious sweetheart. Cummings was a talented golfer; she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur tournament in 1923 and was known as the “Fairway Flapper.” Her photograph appeared on the cover of the August 25, 1924, issue of Time magazine.
321.19 The Vegetable failed] Fitzgerald’s satirical play The Vegetable: or from President to Postman, which he wrote in 1921 and 1922, opened in Atlantic City on November 19, 1923. The play was a flop. It never made it to Broadway and left Fitzgerald in serious debt. Scribner’s published The Vegetable in 1923.
321.24 The Order of Danilo.] Award given by Montenegro since 1853. In chapter IV of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby—who received the award for service during the First World War—shows his medal to Nick Carraway (see p. 63).
322.12 I still owe . . . my Encyclopedia] Scribner’s was the American publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Fitzgerald had purchased the multivolume set from his publisher on credit.
322.14–15 Ernest Boyd’s book?] Fitzgerald is asking for a copy of Portraits: Real and Imaginary (1924) by the Irish journalist and literary critic Ernest Boyd (1887–1946). Published in the U.S. by Doran, the book contains a personality sketch of Fitzgerald.
323.19–21 Will James] See note 318.1.
324.6–11 the jazz history of the world . . . take it out.] Perkins refers to a passage in the version of his novel—then titled Trimalchio—that Fitzgerald had first submitted to his editor. Fitzgerald would cut his narrator’s account of the “Jazz History of the World” in revision. The passage survives in the galleys of the novel and is reproduced in the Cambridge edition of Trimalchio (2000).
324.26–27 mysterious hand . . . the typesetter.] Perkins refers to Fitzgerald’s query about his manuscript being “in hand,” this from Fitzgerald’s letter c. December 20, 1924. See p. 319.
326.12 Reynolds] See note 311.15.
326.14–15 turning down . . . College Humor] Fitzgerald had rejected an offer from College Humor for serial rights to The Great Gatsby. He feared that the appearance of The Great Gatsby in a magazine of light humor and satire would damage both his literary reputation and the reception of the book version.
326.19–21 John Fox . . . no predecessor.] American journalist and novelist John Fox Jr. (1862–1919) published several novels with Scribner’s, including the bestsellers The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908), historical romances set in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and Virginia. Fox had borrowed large amounts of money from Scribner’s during his career.
327.2 Ring’s title for his spring book?] Forthcoming from Scribner’s in the spring of 1925, Lardner’s short story collection was titled What of It?
327.3–4 Did O’Brien . . . his trash-album?] Fitzgerald refers to the annual Best Short Stories series, edited by anthologist Edward J. O’Brien (1890–1941). Each year O’Brien made his selections from American periodicals, having previously chosen Fitzgerald’s “Two for a Cent” for the 1922 volume (“Babylon Revisited” would be reprinted in the 1931 volume). At the back of each volume, O’Brien awarded stars to worthy stories not included in his roundup. “Absolution” received three stars in The Best Short Stories of 1923. Though Fitzgerald was disdainful of the series, he made a note in his personal ledger whenever one of his stories was starred.
328.21 John Bishop.] John Peale Bishop (1892–1944), American poet and critic. A friend of Fitzgerald from his Princeton years, Bishop is the model for the character Thomas Parke D’Invilliers in This Side of Paradise.
329.9 Dunn and . . . Roger] Charles Dunn and Roger Burlingame, members of the editorial department at Scribner’s.
329.14–17 “What of It” . . . the set.] In 1925 Scribner’s reissued You Know Me Al, The Big Town, and Gullible’s Travels—previously published by other firms—as part of a five-volume set that included What of It? and How to Write Short Stories.
329.19 “Symptoms of Being 35”] Perkins refers to Ring Lardner’s article “General Symptoms of Being 35—Which Is What I Am,” published in American Magazine (May 1921). It would later be included in an augmented third printing of What of It?
330.1 finally got his “In our time”] Perkins refers to Hemingway’s in our time (1924), published in Paris in a limited edition by Three Mountains Press. The book would have been difficult for Perkins to find: approximately 130 copies of the 300-copy print run were spoiled by the printer, leaving only about 170 copies for sale. The expanded In Our Time (1925), Hemingway’s first commercial book, would be published in October 1925 by Boni & Liveright.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby & Related Stories
