I had no idea that Fitzgerald's life was anything like this. I'd always heard that he and Zelda had the romance of the ages, but this account showed a slightly different story. This is a SUPER in-depth look at Fitzgerald's life including his monetary earnings, writings, and general life adventures. I feel like I got to know the author on a different level and appreciate the depth of research that went into this tome. Not a light read, but certainly a good one.

First, a confession of bias: I am an F. Scott Fitzgerald nut. To me, there is no one in 20th Century letters that writes with such compelling grace and honesty, no one who wrote in such a way with such flippant disregard. Of all my literary gods, he sits highest on Olympus for me.



That being said, when I undertook SOME SORT OF EPIC GRANDEUR by Matthew J. Bruccoli, I was thrilled and excited to sink my teeth into the life of Fitzgerald. And I was not dissappointed. Bruccoli mixes details with speed-- it's impossible to get bogged down but it's also impossible to walk away from the biography with only a superficial understanding of the man.



Another compliment to Bruccoli: he remains scholarly the entire time. Never in the biography does he stoop down to cast judgement on Fitzgerald, yet at the same time, he never over-glorifies Fitzgerald into some romanticized character that cannot be touched by we mere humans. Mor than anything, Bruccoli reserves analysis for the reader, and to say the least, this assures us that Bruccoli is honest, revealing every insecurity and short-coming while coupling these less than satisfactory traits with that personality of idealistic struggle that was at least part of Fitzgerald's core.



Here, there is no gossip. There is no superficial anecdote. There is only the facts surrounding the man, and while the use of facts may strip Fitzgerald of a false intimacy with the reader, the facts retain the honor of the man, something that every biographer of great men should attempt to achieve.

I can never know enough about Scott and Zelda. The book was a very good insight to their lives. :)

I have read most FSF bios, but this one really takes you through his life in such amazing detail that it stands out - for me - as the best of all of them.

I read this in college so it was a long time ago, back when dinosaurs walked the Earth. Regardless of the time factor, Matthew Bruccoli's biography of Scott Fitzgerald is far and away the best one I have ever read and I have read more than a few. Fitzgerald truly comes to life here as do all the others who touched his life --- Zelda of course, Hemingway, his editor at Scribner's, Max Perkins, and his Hollywood paramour, Sheila Graham, among others. The book reads like fiction and it almost feels as if Broccoli was a close friend of his subject. As an author myself, I have always been impressed by Fitzgerald's stunningly natural talent (first drafts of many of his stories were often good enough to publish with only minor editing.) The tragedy of the last years of his life, during which he failed miserably in Hollywood and turned to liquor for solace was written so vividly, it almost made me weep. If you ever plan to read a bio of this great American author, my recommendation would be to choose this one.
#thestrangecourtshipofabigailbird

Some sort of epic fail

One of the appendices of Matthew J. Bruccoli’s 1981 (2002 for 2nd edition) biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald is a genealogy of their ancestors by his daughter Scottie Fitzgerald dating back to the1600’s. It is not surprising that many of these ancestors were distillers of alcohol, many of them overindulging in their own product, considering the fact that Scott was almost predestined to be an alcoholic. Although he rationalized his addiction by telling himself that alcohol enhanced his literary productivity it was also the major curse in his life, making him his own worst enemy. Nevertheless, it formed a major part of his self-identity at least since the time he was an undergraduate at Princeton University.

He began his writing career when he was attending a boys’ private school and writing stories for the school paper. This helped solidify his concept of himself as a “romantic egoist”, a phrase that became the original title of what became his first published novel, ‘This Side of Paradise’.

During the time after he graduated and joined the army and was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, he met a kindred party animal spirit, Zelda Sayre. For a while, they had compatible temperaments and joined their destinies in marriage. The marriage worked well at first as Scott became successful as a published author through stories sold to a variety of publications, some not able to pay as much as others such as the Saturday Evening Post. While he had the ambition to be a literary writer, he had the fortuitous ability to tailor his writing to mass audience that the Post wanted, which usually required at least a happy ending. When ‘This Side of Paradise’ was published it sold well immediately and he became a celebrity and his and Zelda’s partying hijinks made them the equivalent of tabloid fodder today. His writing pattern of publishing a few stories that would pay him enough to take some time to devote to a novel worked for his first three novels. Most of this work, while worthwhile, consisted of subject matter that was derived from his and Zelda’s own life. After Zelda became pregnant and their daughter Scottie was born they traveled to Paris, the fashionable destination for expatriate writers and artists, where living expenses were generally very affordable and there was a stimulating community of very creative people. It was here where he first met Ernest Hemingway, who became one of his best writer friends, for a while, and the writer whose literary judgment he trusted the most.

It was while living in Europe that he completed his third published novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’, the first and only novel where all the elements seemed to converge in perfect balance. Although it did not bring him a great deal of money it was critically very well received and cited as the book that solidified his reputation as one of the best writers of his generation.

During these years, however, Scott’s and Zelda’s partying escalated and Scott, in particular, became a mean drunk and caused them to get kicked out of bars, restaurants, and parties. Zelda’s mental instability grew more excessive and she was diagnosed as schizophrenic after a few attempts at suicide. Their financial stability worsened with the excessive spending, with Scott beginning a pattern of repeated borrowing from both his agent, Harold Ober, and his editor, Max Perkins. This pattern necessitated him writing some mediocre to bad stories purely for the money, which started a vicious cycle.

With both parents dysfunctional, Scottie was sent to girls’ schools and eventually long stays with Ober and his wife, who became her surrogate parents. Scott kept hoping that his next novel would equal or exceed ‘Gatsby’, but the instability of his alcoholism, Zelda’s mental illness and expensive medical bills, Scottie’s school expenses, and general bad spending habits kept breaking any momentum he might have established on writing what eventually became ‘Tender is the Night’, eventually published nine years after ‘Gatsby’ in 1934. ‘Tender is the Night’ did not solve any of the problems that Scott hoped it would. It neither sold as well nor did it receive the critical acclaim he hoped it would.

Bruccoli has some advantages as a biographer in that Fitzgerald was a very thorough record-keeper, maintaining a ledger for the work he did each year, and the payments earned for every individual story, including an overall assessment of that year, until 1936, when he went to Hollywood to write for “easy” cash when his output trailed off. His alcoholic instability damaged his reputation as a dependable writer. During these Depression years, all writers were affected to various extents and even the well-paid writers like Fitzgerald had to settle for less. Both Ober and Perkins finally reached their limits of extending Scott’s credit and declared that the supply was cut off. Also, much of the work Fitzgerald was submitting for publication was substandard and inevitably rejected.

Bruccoli points out a few features about Fitzgerald that I was not aware of, such as the fact that he was an ardent history buff and had several volumes of works of history on his bookshelves. He was also a fan of H.G. Wells, probably more interested in Wells’ works of social realism rather than his scientific romances as they were referred to at the time. He particularly loved ‘The Outline of History’. How did the historical reading affect his own fiction? He tried writing a few stories with historical settings but Bruccoli says they were some of the worst writing he ever produced.

The transition from the 20’s to the 30’s was difficult for everyone but in Fitzgerald’s case it affected the reception to his fiction. Readers who had difficulty paying bills at all were no longer receptive to stories about characters that could afford to travel overseas repeatedly and give lavish parties. Yet those characters were who he knew best and were the characters he could write about with the most authority.

Although Bruccoli is an unabashed fan, he is not above pointing out flaws both in Fitzgerald’s character or in his writing. As suited to each other as they were, Scott and Zelda became poison for each other. Alcoholism and schizophrenia were a deadly mix. Although they never divorced, they never lived together after the last time Zelda was committed to a mental hospital. Even apart from her, Scott had the triple maladies of alcoholism, progressive tuberculosis as well as heart disease, dying just before Christmas of 1940.

Although one could read a few other biographies and glean some insight, if you just read one F. Scott Fitzgerald biography, ‘Some Sort of Epic Grandeur’ should be it. It covers almost all aspects of his life as well as his work and provides a background on the circumstances that led to publication and rejection of his works, as well as appendices such as the previously mentioned genealogy compiled by his daughter, a movie treatment of a proposed film version of ‘Tender is the Night’ and a comprehensive list of all his of published work as well as a transcription of his ledger. It is the definitive biography.

Completely engrossing and so well done. This is considered the definitive bio of FSF and deservedly so. Fascinating from the first page to the last.

A thorough, even-handed biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, by a biographer who clearly admires his work but is under no illusions about the self-created disaster that was his life.

I read this to prepare an essay for a special program at EMU, a student symposium. It was a new program and I believe I was part of the first group of students. Professor Foster recommended me. It was an honor but I wasn't really happy with what I wrote. Still, this is an excellent biography about a very private man who seemed to share everything with the world in his writings but really shared very little. I gain more insight into the man by reading Hemingway's Moveable Feast than I did reading all of his works, fiction and non-fiction.

So like I only read 50 pgs but like I put a lot of effort into it so...
It's very detailed, there are also pictures to help understand things mentioned.

It has a different feel than most biographies. Lots of chapters (I think more than 60), and long sections devoted to copying and pasting primary source material. I was surprised some consider this a top tier biography, because it didn’t really strike me that way. But I still learned a lot I didn’t know about Fitzgerald’s alcoholism, his tumultuous relationship with Zelda, and how close he had been with Hemingway. I enjoyed the story about him obsessively wanting to change sentences in Tender is the Night years after it had been published, thinking that would appease critics. And then the new version he released was more flawed and readers have ended up sticking to the first version. Also didn’t realize he wrote Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

If you’re a Fitzgerald fan, then this biography is indispensable. It’s thorough, beautifully written, and feels entirely complete. My copy is underlined and ear-marked extensively. It’s that good.

“I have so many things dependent on its [This Side of Paradise] success—including of course a girl—not that I expect it to make me a fortune but it will have a psychological effect on me and all my surroundings and besides open up new fields. I’m in that stage where every month counts frantically and seems a cudgel in a fight for happiness against time”—Fitzgerald’s letter to Max Perkins, September 18, 1919 (pp. 99-100).