In the final part of our series on Max Gerlach — ‘The Real Great Gatsby‘ — I want to take a look at how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first biographer, Arthur Mizener was told of his existence by Princeton graduate, Dan Piper, and how Piper had learned him first hand from the author’s wife, Zelda in…
Category: The Great Gatsby
The Holocaust Was Complete: The Great Gatsby and the Lost Green Light of Liberty Part II
The second of a two-part look at the impact that the sinking of the Titanic may have had on the conception of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. What does the author mean by ‘the Holocuast was complete’? What was the author saying about the times? Henry Adams and F. Scott Fitzgerald weren’t the only…
The Green Light at the End of the Dock. The Great Gatsby and Titanic
April 10, 2023 marks 98 years since the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and 111 years since the RMS Titanic left Southampton’s White Star Dock on its ill-fated maiden voyage. This article explores the meaning and symbolism behind the green light and how it may have been partly inspired by the Titanic…
Meyer Wolfsheim — Arnold Rothstein, Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby
In the last article we were introduced to Max Gerlach, the ‘gentleman bootlegger’ who had provided the partial inspiration for Jay Gatsby. Then there’d been that bombshell discovery that Max had been running a speakeasy for Arnold Rothstein, the notorious mobster who had ‘fixed’ the 1919 World Series. The speakeasy, adjacent to the Coronet Apartments…
Max von Gerlach aka Max Stork – The Original Great Gatsby?
“He started as one man I knew and then changed into myself.” That’s how the author described his most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. And on the evidence currently available there’s no reason to doubt him. Discoveries made by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Horst Kruse suggest that the ‘one man’ he knew was Max Gerlach, whose…
Beacon Towers – The Sands Point Mansion that Gatsby Made His Home
Whether you’ve seen the films or read the books, the thing that everybody seems to remember most about The Great Gatsby is the fantastic house and the riotous parties. But where did Scott get his inspiration for the house? And what was the house intended to say? Despite the increasing personal and religious space that…