Zelda
Page 49
16 One of her beaus remembers her…: Fred Ball to NM, interview, July 30, 1963.
16 There is a snapshot of her…: Ibid.
17 Later in her life she wrote about Alabama Beggs…: SMTW, p. 29.
18 For even as her father’s position…: SMTW, p. 26.
19 Mrs. Sayre remembered…: Mike Fitzgerald, “‘So You’d Like to Hear About Scott…’,” The San Diego Union, November 10, 1963, p. e6.
19 The men came from every imaginable…: SMTW, pp. 34–35.
20 On their way they passed…: Mrs. Virginia Breslin to NM, November 2, 1965.
21 Key-Ice had as its centrai ritual…: Carl Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama, The Literary Guild. New York, 1934, p. 15.
21 The tensions inherent in that charade of Southern womanhood…: SMTW, p. 56.
22 School wasn’t going well…: Montgomery Public Schools, to NM, October 13, 1965.
22 She remarked later…: Prangins.
22 On April Fool’s Day…: Mrs. E. Addison to NM, June 25, 1965.
22 There had been a lot of discussion about what the girls should wear…: Lucy Goldthwaite to NM, interview. May 20, 1965.
23 At the last moment Zelda sat in the audience…: Irby Jones to NM, interview, July 30, 1963.
Chapter 3
24 It was a hot Saturday night…: Mike Fitzgerald, “‘So You’d Like to Hear About Scott…’,” the San Diego Union, November 10, 1963, p. e6.
24 Later in her life Zelda remembered…: SMTW, p. 35.
24 Once having met…: Edmund Wilson to NM. July 19, 1965.
25 Scott once wrote…: The Romantic Egotist, FSF unpublished novel, p. 2.
25 “He…came from another America…”: “The Death of My Father,” The Apprentice Fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1909–1917, edited by John Kuehl, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1965, pp. 178–180.
26 And it was from his father…: The Romantic Egotist, p. 4.
26 It is not surprising, then, to discover…: “Princeton,” Afternoon of an Author, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, p. 72.
26 As Scott’s biographer Arthur Mizener…: Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise (2nd ed.), Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, p. 14.
26 He once wrote his daughter…: Letters, p. 5.
26 He not only cared deeply about what others thought…: Thoughtbook of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, Princeton University Library, Princeton, 1965, p. xvi, xxiii.
27 “I saw a musical comedy…”: “Who’s Who—and Why,” Afternoon of an Author, p. 83.
27 Mizener observes that…: The Far Side of Paradise, p. 29.
27 He decided to become…: TSOP, p. 43.
28 As a classmate of Scott’s said…: Professor Gregg Dougherty to NM, interview, July 1966.
28 He wrote the lyrics for Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!…: “Princeton,” Afternoon of an Author, p. 75.
28 He later wrote that he would never forget…: CU, p. 24.
28 The young man who would write of the hero…: TSOP, pp. 17–18.
29 “But I had lost certain offices…”: CU, p. 76.
29 As he wrote later, “A man does not recover…”: Ibid.
29 In “A Luckless Santa Claus,”…: Apprentice Fiction, p. 48.
29 She says of herself…: Ibid., pp. 97–98.
30 In “Babes in the Woods,”…: Ibid., p. 136.
30 She has “beauty and the most direct…”: Ibid. pp. 168–169.
31 “I wandered around…”: Ibid., p. 170.
31 “He knew what was wrong…”: Ibid., p. 151.
31 Fitzgerald spent the summer of 1917…: Letters, p. 318.
31 He had also begun a novel…: Ibid., p. 323.
32 Shane Leslie, an Irish novelist and critic…: Shane Leslie to Charles Scribner, n.d.
32 Scott sent a chapter of it to Zelda…: FSF to ZSF, n.d. ZSF’s scrapbook.
33 Scott never forgot his first invitation…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963. It is altogether possible that Scott or even Zelda made up this incident to add pungency to the story of their courtship, for it does not seem in keeping with Judge Sayre’s sense of decorum. On the other hand, the Judge was seriously ill for nine months in 1918 with “nervous prostration,” according to Mrs. Sayre, who nursed him.
34 Describing her attraction to him…: SMTW, p. 37.
34 Many years later she wrote: “He was almost certainly falling in love…”: CT, Chapter IV, p. 30.
34 She teased him…: Ibid., p. 32.
35 He wrote a letter to an old friend…: Letters, p. 454.
35 He was to call it “The most important…”: Ledger, p. 173.
35 Cautious as she had been in the late autumn…: Notebooks, G., “Descriptions of Girls.”
36 All of the dances on Zelda’s card…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
36 “She, she told herself…”: SMTW, p. 29.
36 In a gesture of consummate confidence…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
Chapter 4
37 But Scott did keep Zelda’s…: TSOP, p. 198.
38 He showed it to at least one friend…: Stephen Parrott to FSF, April 27, 1919.
38 At the end of February Zelda told him…: ZSF to FSF, n.d. (ca. February 1919).
All of Zelda’s letters to Scott in the text of this chapter were written during their February-June 1919 courtship and undated.
38 At the bottom of his invitation to Auburn…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
38 Today he remembers Zelda as…: Francis Stubbs to NM, December 28, 1965.
39 He had arrived in the city…: “Who’s Who—and Why,” Afternoon of an Author, p. 85.
42 On March 22 he wired her…: FSF to ZSF, March 22. 1919, ZSF’s scrapbook.
42 Scott again wired her…: FSF to ZSF, n.d., ZSF’s scrapbook.
44 He put her letter almost verbatim…: TSOP, p. 170.
45 After the trip he wrote in his Ledger…: Ledger, p. 173.
49 His story “Babes in the Woods”…: CU, pp. 59, 86.
49 Adding, with that touch of self-perception…: See TSOP, p. 170.
51 The society columns and rotogravure sections…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
52 Edgy and fatigued, knowing full well…: CU, p. 86.
52 They sat together in the familiar front room…: See FSF short story, “The Sensible Thing.” In Letters, p. 189, he wrote Maxwell Perkins that it was “about Zelda and me, all true….”
52 He believed, as he would soon write…: TSOP, p. 216.
Chapter 5
54 In a story Zelda wrote later…: “Southern Girl,” College Humor, October 1929, p. 27.
54 “The drug stores are bright at night…”: Ibid.
54 He had decided to rewrite his novel…: CU, p. 85.
54 He wrote Edmund Wilson…: Letters, pp. 324–325.
54 As soon as he received word of its acceptance…: Ibid., p. 139.
55 In a section of the novel called “The Débutante”…: FSF to Shane Leslie, August 6, 1920 (Letters, p. 376), “I married the Rosalind of the novel, the southern girl I was so attached to, after a grand reconciliation.”
55 “Rosalind,” he wrote, “is—utterly…”: TSOP, pp. 170–172.
55 “I’m mighty glad you’re coming—…”: ZSF to FSF, n.d. (ca. fall 1919).
56 After he heard from Zelda, he wrote to Ludlow Fowler…: FSF to Ludlow Fowler, n.d. (ca. fall 1919).
56 Before he left he again wrote Fowler…: FSF to Ludlow Fowler, postmarked November 10, 1919.
56 In a story called “The Sensible Thing”…: The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Malcolm Cowley, Scribner’s, New York, 1951, pp. 156, 158.
56 Nonetheless, before he left…: Letters, p. 144.
56 And she added: “Somehow…”: ZSF to FSF, n.d.
57 The cheeky young man who wrote…: Letters, p. 456.
57 “all the iridescence…”: CU, p. 25.
57 After she had read it she wrote…: ZSF to FSF, n.d.
57 Scott had already begun to make plans…: ZSF to FSF, n.d.
58 “THE SATURDAY EVENING POST…”: Both of these telegrams are in ZSF’s scrapbook.
58 In his Ledger he wrote…: Ledger, p. 174.
58 “Yesterday I almost wrote a book or story…”: ZSF to FSF, n.d.
59 “Momma came in with the package…”: ZSF to FSF, n.d. (ca. January 1920).
60 During Scott’s trips up from New Orleans…: ZSF to FSF, n.d. Scott who nearly always drew deeply on his own life in his fiction had begun a new novel called Darling Heart, “which turned completely on the seduction of the girl….” (Letters, p. 143.) By February he had given it up. Just how deeply the experience of sex with Zelda before their marriage marked him can only be guessed at. Certainly he felt ambivalent about it. Later in his life he was to embarrass Hemingway, Gerald Murphy and several other men by asking them if they had slept with their wives before marriage. Seduction of Daisy by Gatsby and the affair of Anthony Patch and Dorothy Raycroft in The Beautiful and Damned are examples of ways in which he cast his feelings about himself and Zelda.
60 On the 26th of February, while staying at Cottage…: Mrs. Isabel Amorous Palmer to NM, February 26, 1968.
60 “No personality as strong as Zelda’s…”: FSF to Isabel Amorous, February 26, 1920.
60 He then wired Zelda…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
61 He had in his hand a color-illustrated…: C. Lawton Campbell memoir, “The Fitzgeralds Were My Friends,” unpublished. Hereafter this fascinating account of Mr. Campbell’s relationship to the Fitzgeralds will be referred to as Campbell Memoir.
61 “Darling Heart, our fairy tale is almost ended…”: ZSF to FSF, n.d. (ca. March 1920).
62 At last they decided to marry on…: FSF to ZSF, March 30, 1920. ZSF’s scrap book.
Chapter 6
65 Zelda and Scott put their first…: CU, p. 60.
65 Somewhat painfully Scott saw Zelda for the first time…: FSF, “Does a Moment of Revolt Come Sometime to Every Married Man?” McCall’s, March 1924, p. 21.
65 Zelda had organdy dresses with great flounces…: Mrs. Marie Hersey Hamm to NM, September 1, 1965.
66 She wrote later: “It was the first garment…”: CU, p. 60.
66 “Vincent Youmans wrote the music…”: SMTW, p. 45–46.
66 Scott undressed at the Scandals…: CU, pp. 27, 28, 41.
66 As she wrote in Save Me…: SMTW, p. 42.
66 Dorothy Parker never forgot meeting Zelda…: Dorothy Parker to NM, interview, August 26, 1964.
67 Scott was suddenly “the arch type…”: CU, pp. 26–27.
67 He kept a diary in which he made frequent entries…: Alexander McKaig Diary, 1919–1921. All quotations from McKaig are excerpted from this diary.
68 Dorothy Parker’s impressions of Zelda…: Dorothy Parker to NM, interview, August 26, 1964.
68 “When I entered, the room was bedlam…”: Campbell Memoir.
68 Their own conversation ran playfully…: SMTW, pp. 46–48.
69 “We watched him wave his cigarette…”: “Re Gossip Shop,” The Bookman, April 1921, p. 190.
69 Still he and Zelda were safe…: CU, p. 28.
69 For a part of Scott was aware…: Ibid., p. 25.
69 Ruth recalled: “Neither of them could drive…”: Leon Ruth to NM, interview, July 30, 1963.
70 Zelda wrote Ludlow Fowler…: ZSF to Ludlow Fowler, May 19, 1920.
70 It would be about Anthony Patch…: Letters, p. 145. The Flight of the Rocket was later retitled The Beautiful and Damned.
71 Soon each of Nathan’s letters to Westport…: George Jean Nathan to ZSF, n.d.
71 During one of his weekends in Westport he had discovered…: George Jean Nathan, “Memories of Fitzgerald, Lewis and Dreiser,” Esquire, October 1958, pp. 148–149.
72 “Zelda was up. This was obvious…”: “The Cruise of the Rolling Junk,” Motor, February 1924, p. 24.
73 “HURRY BACK TO MONTGOMERY…”: Telegram to ZSF, May 17, 1920. ZSF’s scrapbook.
73 When Zelda’s mother was an old woman…: Mike Fitzgerald, “‘So You’d Like to Hear About Scott…’,” the San Diego Union, November 10, 1963, p. e6.
74 “We’ve been in Alabama for two weeks…”: ZSF to Ludlow Fowler, August 16, 1920.
74 At the end of August Zelda and Scott reappear…: McKaig Diary.
76 Shortly after the incident McKaig refers to, Zelda wrote…: ZSF to FSF, n.d.
78 Scott summarized his impression of the year’s…: Ledger, p. 175.
78 “She would stretch out on the long sofa…”: Campbell Memoir. C. Lawton Campbell toNM, interview, September 19, 1965.
81 Zelda and Scott had spent a lonely Christmas…: CU, p. 27.
81 This time a Hawaiian pageant was put on…: Campbell Memoir.
82 “I was sitting one evening at a table…”: Campbell Memoir.
83 He had written in the manuscript of his new novel…: B&D, p. 157.
83 But the most exciting event of their visit…: Sir Shane Leslie to NM, July 6, 1965.
83 From London they traveled to Windsor and…: The snapshots, as well as the misquotation from Rupert Brooke, are in Zelda’s scrapbook.
83 Scott wrote Edmund Wilson…: Letters, p. 326.
84 After much discussion about where their baby…: CU, p. 29.
84 At the end of August…: Ibid.
84 In his Ledger Scott described the year…: Ledger, p. 176.
84 Zelda wrote: “In the fall…”: CU, p. 42.
84 “Oh, God, goofo I’m drunk…”: Ledger, p. 176.
84 They named their daughter Patricia…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
84 As soon as Zelda was on her feet…: ZSF to Ludlow Fowler, December 22, 1921.
Chapter 7
86 The Fitzgeralds were behind the spoof…: ZSF’s scrapbook. Mrs. C. O. Kalman was also kind enough to send me her copy of The Daily Dirge.
87 But the changes he did make were not substantial…: Letters, p. 152.
87 The jacket sketch irritated him…: Letters, p. 153.
87 “The baby is well…”: Letters, p. 329.
88 In Scott’s Ledger during March…: Ledger, p. 176.
88 Even then Scott commented…: Letters, p. 331.
89 “I think if you could view it…”: Burton Rascoe to ZSF, March 27, 1922. ZSF’s scrapbook.
89 The tone of the review was self-conscious…: The New York Tribune, April 2, 1922. The clipping of Zelda’s review is in her scrapbook.
89 “It also seems to me that on one page…”: Ibid.
89 One such portion from the novel…: B&D, pp. 146–147.
90 “I think the heroine is most amusing…”: The New York Tribune, April 2, 1922.
90 John Peale Bishop was keenly aware…: Bishop, “Three Brilliant Young Novelists,” The Collected Essays of John Peale Bishop, pp. 229–230.
91 “Even with his famous flapper…”: Ibid., p. 230.
91 In June the Metropolitan Magazine did publish…: “Eulogy on the Flapper,” Metropolitan Magazine, June 1922. ZSF’s scrapbook.
91 “How can a girl say again…”: Ibid.
92 In the summertime of 1922 the Fitzgeralds…: Mrs. Robert D. Clark to NM, July 21, 1965.
92 “She was very athletic and wanted to be out…”: Mrs. C. O. Kalman to NM, interview, September 1964.
93 It was in New York, while they were temporarily living at the Plaza…: John Dos Passos to NM, interview, October 17, 1963.
93 “I met them together for the first time…”: Ibid.
94 At the time The Beautiful and Damned was published…: Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise, p. 157.
94 Scott published a selection of short stories…: Letters, p. 158.
94 As Zelda was to write…: SMTW, p. 57.
94 In October the Fitzgeralds found the house…: Afternoon of an Author, pp. 89–90.
94 “our nifty little Babbitt-home…”: ZSF to C. O. Kalman, October 13, 1922-
95 He made the Fitzgeralds Cinderella and the Prince…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
95 At Christmas Lardn
er sent her a poem…: Ibid.
96 When Scott came to make his summary of 1922…: Ledger, p. 177.
96 In the Sunday section of the Morning Telegraph…: Roy L. McCardell, “F. Scott Fitzgerald—Juvenile Juvenal of the Jeunesse Jazz,” New York Morning Telegraph, November 12, 1922, p. 3.
97 There were parties where the Fitzgeralds did not arrive…: Newspaper clipping in ZSF’s scrapbook.
97 Gilbert Seldes, who was then editor of The Dial…: Gilbert Seldes to NM, interview, May 27, 1965.
98 “Fitzgerald blew into New York last week….”: Between Friends, Letters of James Branch Cabell and Others, edited by Padraic Colum and Margaret Freeman Cabell, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1962, p. 254.
98 In his Ledger at the beginning of 1923…: Ledger, p. 177.
98 What he had written in The Beautiful and Damned…: B&D, p. 226.
98 “You know, I was famous…”: Carl Van Vechten to NM, interview, April 17, 1963.
99 “She was an original…”: Ibid.
99 Rebecca West’s impressions of the Fitzgeralds…: Dame Rebecca West to NM, August 10. 1963.
100 “I am running wild in sack cloth…”: ZSF to Ludlow Fowler, n.d. (ca. November 2, 1923).
100 “I like to write…”: “What a ‘Flapper Novelist’ Thinks of His Wife,” the Baltimore Evening Sun, October 7, 1923, sec. 5, p. 2.
102 During 1922–1923 she sold two short stories…: Ledger, pp. 7, 54, 55, 143.
102 He once commented that he had to stop…: Letters, p. 163.
102 “Zelda and I have concocted a wonderful idea…”: Letters, p. 337.
102 In November the play opened in Atlantic City…: Newspaper clippings in ZSF’s scrapbook.
103 “It was,” he wrote later…: Afternoon of an Author, pp. 93–94.
103 When he summarized the year…: Ledger, p. 178.
103 Zelda wrote in her unpublished novel…: CT, Chapter V, p. 32.
103 Lardner said goodbye in a poem…: ZSF’s scrapbook.
Chapter 8
104 Lawton Campbell spotted them strolling…: C. Lawton Campbell to NM, interview, September 19, 1965.
105 During the several days they spent in Paris…: CU, p. 43.