It’s 11.30am on Friday, June 23 2023. I’ve been rifling the archives and punching in keywords for the past few hours. Suddenly I’m excited. I’ve found a report in a copy of Variety Magazine dated July 27, 1927. It’s unlikely to have been seen by another pair of eyes for close to a 100 years….
Category: The Jazz Age
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald at the Embassy Club, London
During their stays in London in 1921 and 1925, their London host, Shane Leslie, introduced Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald to an illustrious parade of British dignitaries that included his aunt, Lady Randolph (Jennie) Churchill — the New York-born mother of Britain’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Leslie’s cousin, Winston Churchill — and the…
Americanism & the Catholic Church in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.” “You can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously.“Why of course you can!” He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. The Great Gatbsy With…
A Confederacy of Dreamers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, his father and the American Civil War.
April 14th 1865 – 161 yrs ago today the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Did you know that the family of Great Gatsby author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, were implicated in the assassination? This article explores the Confederate ‘ghosts’ in the author’s Civil War closet…
‘Zionism versus Bolshevism’ – Winston Churchill, Illustrated Sunday Herald
Content warning: In the following story and podcast I am going to be shining the spotlight on some very unpleasant material. We’ll be dealing with issues of race and ethnicity, so use your discretion and prioritize your wellbeing. Churchill’s ‘Zionism versus Bolshevism’ for the Illustrated Sunday Herald must rank as one of the most controversial…
Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own – F. Scott Fitzgerald
When my wife gifted me with a copy of The Woman’s Home Companion, I came across an item that hasn’t been seen for over a hundred years. It’s from the pen of F. Scott Fitzgerald and it is the brief explanation he provided for his article, ‘Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own’. The…
Arthur Mizener talks to Mary Margaret McBride January 1951
With only so many days of the Gatsby centenary to go, I thought I’d share this: Scott Fitzgerald’s first biographer, Arthur Mizener, talking to Mary Margaret McBride about his new book, The Far Side of Paradise, in January 1951. The book was a milestone in the creation of the Fitzgerald legend and was published almost…
Christmas Centenary Podcast: The Great Gatsby, Catholicism, and a Lasting American Sacrament
Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth. Despite all the glitter and extravgance, Scott would always describe himself as a…
The Great Gatsby, The Land of Cockaigne and Gastronomic Utopias
This article explores thematic parallels between The Great Gatsby, Joyce’s Ulysses, and myths like the Land of Cockaigne. It examines motifs of abundance, identity, and longing, reflecting on how literature reinterprets recurring myths of paradise, excess, and the sea. The essay connects Gatsby’s parties to ancient banquets and discusses how these works mirror and refract…
Absolution — F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby’s Forgotten Prologue
Many people won’t know that The Great Gatsby once had a prologue. It was ditched by Fitzgerald when he realised that it didn’t fit with the ’general neatness’ of the book’s design. Instead, he offered to H. L. Mencken’s new American Mercury magazine for a $118. It’ s a deeply enigmatic tale, so what is…