I read this book for so long. First I started reading it as an e-book, but then the app I use for e-books deleted it from their library. So I bought the book. I decided to start over as I saw that the footnotes were very useful. I read this book 1,5 times...

Mostly this book consists of lending money and someone being sick. I'm interested in 20s writers but this was maybe too much for me. Should have read his wiki page instead.

“America’s greatest promise is that something is going to happen, and after awhile you get tired of waiting because nothing happens to people expect that they grow old and nothing happens to American art because America is the story of the moon that never rose.”

A collection of correspondences with Maxwell Perkins from Scribner's on his work, finances + loans, marketing strategy, endless requests + whining, letters to his Princeton colleague and literary critic Edmund Wilson, critiques and advices to his homie Hemingway, Scottie his daughter, John Beale Bishop, etc. No matter what it is, it's always written... gorgeously?

One can only wish to write like this. (an irrefutable asshole though)

“You and I have been happy; we haven’t been happy just once, we’ve been happy a thousand times. The chances that spring, that’s for everyone, like in the popular songs, may belong to us too – the chances are pretty bright at this time because as usual, I can carry most of contemporary literary opinion, liquidated, in the hollow of my hand – and when I do, I see the swan floating on it and – I find it to be you and you only.”

I have a love of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, starting with the Great Gatsby, but going far beyond that. I picked up this book eagerly because I have always wanted to read his own letters about his life, particularly his relationship with Zelda.

I'm somewhat disappointed by the book. I find the one sidedness of the letters, we only read Fitzgerald's letters with a few exceptions, to leave me wanting. I don't feel the full picture, and it feels as though part of the story is missing. I also would like to read the other side of Zelda's illness--Fitzgerald's side of it is obviously self-serving and he is in denial about his own problems with drinking.

I am going to put a book with both his letters and Zelda's next on my list.

An excellent compilation of primary source material from Fitzgerald's Princeton years to his final years in Hollywood.

I truly have never taken longer to read a book.

This wasn't as interesting as I expected/hoped it would be. Mostly administrative discussions about money and work, very little on his actual life, which admittedly you can't expect so much of when these are letters and not diary entries. I probably should have managed my expectations.

Found Scott very easy to pity and incredibly easy to dislike the whole way through. Happy to see the back of this book, for sure.

Fascinating stuff. Inside the heart and soul of one of America's most epic writers. To read this book is to understand that Fitzgerald was a true romantic and -- as most writers are -- his own worst critic.

I don't think there is a better way of knowing who a person was than reading his hand written letters. There was much to know of Fitzgerald and what was going on in his life that contributed to such wonderful, dramatic and colorful stories that so many people love and continue to read. I will forever refer back to this book and many specific letters as they are inspirational and contain powerful words. I highly recommend this book to lovers of the early 1900's, poetry and/or Fitzgerald.

* 2.5
A very interesting and sad portrayal of Fitzgerald's life. I felt quite sorry for him. He was a very talented writer who was forgotten by his contemporaries. Because of his alcoholism he led a very troubled life. I liked the letters to his daughter the most. However, it was a very slow read, and some sections were difficult to get through. Only worth reading if you are really passionate about his work.

Whining elevated to an art form. Unfortunately, I have no patience for whining.

A Book I Wished Never Ended

F Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters is a portal to 1917 to 1940, a magical mailbox where you can receive letters from F Scott Fitzgerald.

On December 21, 1940, F Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack, and, as the letters approached that date, I had to choke back tears—I wasn’t ready to let go of this broken man with tremendous dreams, a struggling artist, a committed father and husband, waging battle on too many fronts.

A Life in Letters is highly addictive; while I was reading this, I would share glimpses of letters with friends, and they would inevitably return, clamoring for more.

Struggling Artist

A Life in Letters paints a portrait of a struggling artist—despite Fitzgerald’s commitment to quality, he never attained boundless riches and glory in his lifetime.

And the life of an artist can be depressing. For example, Vincent Van Gogh died a relatively unknown; he only attained fame posthumously as a result of his brother’s wife tirelessly promoting his work.

One of the funniest books that I have ever read is A Confederacy of Dunces, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. However, the author, John Kennedy Toole died in 1969, heartbroken due to the countless rejection of his book. His mother, Thelma, found his book, read it, and discovered that it was legitimately excellent. She spent years finding someone to give it a chance. According to Wikipedia, over five years, she sent the book to seven publishers, and all rejected it. Finally, she cornered a college professor who agreed to read it to get her off his back. He intended to only read one page, but the book was so enchanting that he couldn’t put it down, and the rest is history.

The point is that the life of a true artist is rarely easy, and Fitzgerald was no exception. Let’s look at some of his quotes:

“I want to be extravagantly admired again.”

“Who in hell ever respected Shelley, Whitman, Poe, O. Henry, Verlaine, Swinburne, Villon, Shakespeare ect when they were alive. Shelley + Swinburne were fired from college; Verlaine + O Henry were in jail. The rest were drunkards or wasters and told generally by merchants and petty politicians and jitney messiahs of their day that real people wouldn’t stand it And the merchants and messiahs, the shrewd + the dull, are dust—and the others live on.”

“The book comes out today [The Great Gatsby] and I am overcome with fears and forebodings. […] In fact all my confidence is gone. […] I’m sick of the book myself—I wrote it over at least five times.”

“Everything that I have ever attained has been through long and persistent struggle.”

“When I was your age I lived with a great dream. The dream grew and I learned how to speak of it and make people listen.”

“In a small way I was an original.”

“You don’t realize that what I am doing here is the last tired effort of a man who once did something finer and better.”

“What little I’ve accomplished has been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I wish now I’d never relaxed or looked back—but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: ‘I’ve found my line—from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty—without this I am nothing.’”

Secret Insights

A Life in Letters doesn’t disappoint if you want to know the secrets behind Fitzgerald’s works.

Did you know that Fitzgerald considered many different titles for The Great Gatsby? Below were some possibilities:
Under the Red, White, and Blue
Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires
Gold-Hatted Gatsby
Trimalchio in West Egg
The High-Bouncing Lover
On the Road to West Egg

Literary Critic

A Life in Letters is also a literary guide. Fitzgerald gives his colorful yet eloquent opinion on many works of literature from Charles Dickens to Gertrude Stein to William Blake to John Keats to Edith Wharton to Sinclair Lewis to Henry David Thoreau. Toward the end of his life, Fitzgerald worked very briefly on the script for Gone With The Wind.

While living in Paris, Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway. For A Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, Fitzgerald gives Hemingway detailed review notes, reprinted in A Life in Letters. If one were so inclined, a reader can discover if Hemingway accepted Fitzgerald’s “suggestions.”

One of my favorite authors is John Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald had strong opinions about him. He accused Steinbeck of stealing a scene from McTeague, a book by Frank Norris, and using it in Of Mice and Men.

Fitzgerald also had a front row seat to the clash between his editor, Maxwell Perkins, and writer Thomas Wolfe. This is covered in the brilliant 2016 film, Genius. Of course, now I have to read Look Homeward Angel.

If you have a strong literary curiosity, who better than Fitzgerald to give his honest opinion?

A Reminder to Be Kind to Each Other

In 1936, Fitzgerald broke his shoulder in a diving accident, making writing impossible. On September 25, 1936, The New York Post published a particularly troubling article, resulting in Fitzgerald attempting to take his own life. By 1939, Fitzgerald writes of spending months in bed with ill health, high temperatures, and a lung cavity.

In parting, keep in mind Fitzgerald’s advice to his daughter, Scottie:

But it is a different story that you have spent two years doing no useful work at all, improving neither your body nor your mind, but only writing reams and reams of dreary letters to dreary people, with no possible object except obtaining invitations which you could not accept. […]

On the other hand, when occasionally I see signs of life and intention in you, there is no company in the world I prefer. For there is no doubt that you have something in your belly, some real gusto for life—a real dream of your own—and my idea was to wed it to something solid before it was too late.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $31.80 from eBay

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I loved this book for so many reasons. It gave me insights into Fitzgerald's process as a writer. I learned about his relationship with his daughter. I felt part of the trajectory of his life and I feel so sad at how quickly it all ended. This is a book I would read over and over.