Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda
Page 43
5. Zelda spent a month in Sarasota with Dr. Carroll and his wife. While there, she took her first art courses.
6. Scottie visited Zelda in March.
7. Before leaving on their Cuba trip in April.
8. Written immediately on their return from Cuba, while Zelda was still in New York.
9. Zelda’s sister and brother-in-law, Clothilde and John Palmer, lived in Larchmont, not far from New York City. The reference to “the children” is unclear but perhaps is alluded to in Scott’s May 6, 1939, letter (no. 222).
10. Frank Case, owner of the Algonquin Hotel in New York, where Scott and Zelda went on their return from Cuba.
11. Scott lived in Buffalo between 1898–1901 and 1903–1908.
12. Zelda’s doctors asked Scott not to let her smoke or drink while away from the hospital, a stipulation he ignored and one that he and Zelda conspired to keep from the doctors.
13. Zelda wrote this letter from Baltimore, where she stopped and spent the night on her way back to Asheville from New York.
14. Scott wanted Zelda to visit him in Hollywood for a month that summer, but Scottie’s appendectomy prevented the trip.
15. “The End of Hate,” published in Collier’s, June 22, 1940.
16. Possibly Nora Flynn; she and her husband, Lefty, were friends of Scott’s.
17. Newman Smith, Zelda’s brother-in-law.
18. Probably the children of screenwriter Charles Brackett.
19. This letter may not have been sent.
20. H. N. Swanson, an agent who was helping Scott obtain screenwriting assignments.
21. After his longtime literary agent, Harold Ober, refused Scott any further advances (which he took as a sign that Ober no longer believed in him), Scott broke with him. Scottie continued to live with the Obers, with whom she had a warm and loving home.
22. Hollywood actress, whom the Fitzgeralds met in Hollywood in 1927.
23. 1939 film, starring Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, and Maureen O’Hara.
24. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939.
25. Scott was considering writing under a pseudonym: “I’m awfully tired of being Scott Fitzgerald,” he later wrote to Arnold Gingrich of Esquire; “I’d like to find out if people read me just because I am Scott Fitzgerald or, what is more likely, don’t read me for the same reason” (Life in Letters 433).
26. Scott probably never sent this letter. The draft and a typescript are in the Bruccoli Collection at the Thomas Cooper Library of the University of South Carolina. This text is from Correspondence 557–559.
27. A leading debutante of the day.
28. Popular magazine of the 1920s, which specialized in gossip.
29. Scott may have sent this letter in place of the more bitter one (no. 251).
30. On September 1, 1939, German soldiers invaded Poland, annexing Danzig and causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany two days later.
31. The Murphys loaned Scott the money for part of Scottie’s tuition.
32. Zelda had gone home for Christmas without a nurse for the first time since her hospitalization.
33. Scott was preparing a film adaptation of his story “Babylon Revisited,” but the movie was never made from his script, which he called “Cosmopolitan.” A 1954 film, The Last Time I Saw Paris, was based on “Babylon Revisited,” but the screenplay was not Scott’s.
34. Scott may be referring to “A Short Retort,” an article defending modern youth, which Scottie published in the July 1939 issue of Mademoiselle.
35. Scott published a story about unsuccessful Hollywood screenwriter Pat Hobby in each monthly issue of Esquire from November 1939 until July 1941.
36. Dr. Carroll’s treatment included a strict diet, which Zelda appears to have violated while away from the hospital on one of her brief trips into Asheville.
37. The screenplay of “Babylon Revisited,” for which Scott was paid five hundred dollars a week, plus nine hundred for the film rights to his story.
38. Scott did not move to 1403 North Laurel Avenue in Hollywood until the middle of June.
39. In order to avoid her doctor knowing, Zelda had arranged for Scott to send money to her through an old friend who had moved to Asheville.
40. Mrs. Sayre’s household help.
41. The last line, written on the edge of the paper, is illegible.
42. For some reason, Scott apparently was not receiving Zelda’s letters at this time.
43. Piece in the New York Times about Scottie may have been in connection with the Vassar spring musical Guess Who’s Here, for which she wrote the script.
44. Director Alfred Hitchcock’s highly successful 1940 film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca.
45. Zelda wrote a play, Scandalabra, at La Paix in 1932, which was produced in Baltimore in 1933 and was unsuccessful. The Montgomery Little Theatre never took up the project. The play can be found in Collected Writings (199–267).
46. A series of stories Scott wrote in 1928 and 1929 about the ambitions and struggles of a young boy named Basil Duke Lee, who resembled Scott as an adolescent.
47. This is written along the left-hand side of the first page of the letter.
48. Zelda apparently experienced a temporary concern (perhaps panic) about her ability to cope with Scottie’s visit and so sent this telegram to Scott.
49. “Cosmopolitan,” Scott’s screen adaptation of “Babylon Revisited”; in the end, producer Lester Cowan and Shirley Temple’s mother were unable to agree on a financial arrangement.
50. Scottie was interviewed by the Montgomery Advertiser, while she was visiting her mother.
51. A stipulation regarding Zelda’s release from the hospital was that she continue to walk five miles a day.
52. Paris France (1940).
53. The envelope for this letter survives; it is postmarked August 14.
54. Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940).
55. Probably American-born poet and critic T. S. Eliot.
56. Scottie’s story “A Wonderful Time” was published in The New Yorker in October 1940.
57. Scottie’s story, “The End of Everything,” published in College Bazaar in August.
58. According to Sheilah Graham, Scott saw his doctor in November, after a dizzy spell while at the corner drugstore. The doctor told him he had had a “cardiac spasm.” Later that month, when he and Sheilah were going to a movie, he had another spell, whereupon he went home to bed. Since June 1940, Scott and Sheilah had lived near each other. After his dizzy spells, he moved into her apartment which was on the first floor. Sheilah and his secretary, Frances Kroll, planned to look for a ground-floor apartment for Scott.
59. The text of this letter appears in Andrew Turnbull’s edition of Scott’s Letters; but we have been unable to locate it. This transcription is Turnbull’s (p. 133).
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
“Absolution” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 113, 117
Adair, Perry, 35, 37
Adams, J. Donald, 191n.92
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (Twain), 374
Aeschylus, 155, 156, 159
Aida (opera), 61
Akins, Zoë, 66n.16
Alabama, 66, 67, 201, 214, 224, 234, 237, 244, 247, 259–60, 292–93, 295–96, 317, 354, 369
Alchemist, The (Jonson), 201, 206
Alfred A. Knopf (publisher), 157
Algonquin Hotel, 279n.10
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), 341, 369
“All About the Down’s Case” (Z. Fitzgerald), 119
Allen, Marjorie, 121
All the Sad Young Men (F. S. Fitzgerald), 57, 122
All This and
Heaven Too (film), 347
Amalia (ballet teacher), 117
American Magazine, 329
American Mercury (magazine), 65n.11, 144
Anderson, Julia, 135, 345
Anderson, Sherwood, 57
Annabel (FSF’s sister), 130, 142
Annabel, Aunt (FSF’s aunt), 27
Annecy (France), 109
Antibes (France), 62, 68, 71, 195, 201, 214, 252
Aristotle, 195, 205, 216
Arlen, Michael, 85
Arles (France), 103
Art and Craft of Drawing, The (book), 291, 294
Art Masterpieces (Craven), 361, 366
Art of Writing (Stevenson), 294
Asheville (N.C.), 30, 32, 198, 215–17, 219–20, 223, 225, 231, 236, 239, 245, 247, 252, 264, 270, 279, 282n.13, 287, 289–97, 301, 311, 317, 320, 324–27, 332n.36, 335n.39, 347–48, 359
Highland Hospital, xxiv, 30n.37, 217–335, 385–86
Asheville Mission hospital, 289, 292, 294
Atlanta (Ga.), 36, 222, 239, 257, 284, 321, 361, 379
Atlantic City (N.J.), 54
Atlantic Monthly (magazine), 326
Attributes of Ego (ZF proposed title), 276
Auburn University, 11–12, 20, 24, 36–38, 132
“Auction—Model 1934” (Z. Fitzgerald), 204
Auerbachs (ZF’s friends), 337
Avignon (France), 103
“Babes in the Woods” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 5, 34n.40
“Babylon Revisited” (F. S. Fitzgerald screenplay), 330n.33, 333–34, 338, 347
“Babylon Revisited” (F. S. Fitzgerald short story), 101, 330n.33, 350n.49, 355
“Baby Party, The” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 113, 117
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 125
Baker, George Pierce, 161n.53, 163, 196
Baltimore (Md.), 145–46, 151, 156, 161, 166, 169, 171, 189n.85, 197, 198n.102, 216–17, 219, 231–32, 254, 259, 270, 282n.13, 287–91, 305, 318, 344, 359, 362, 366, 385–86
Baltimore Sun (newspaper), 54, 362
Bankhead, Gene, 66
Barney, Natalie, 87n.4, 94
Barron G. Collier Advertising Agency, 382
Barry, Philip, 56, 71, 161n.53
Basil Duke Lee stories (F. S. Fitzgerald), 344n.46
Bay of Biscay, 123
Beach, Sylvia, 57, 59
Beautiful and Damned, The (F. S. Fitzgerald), xxvii–xviii, 52, 53–54, 65, 67
Belasco, David, 66
Belvedere Hotel, 231
Benchley, Robert, 56, 64, 189n.84, 236
Ben Hur (film), 68n.28
Bennett, Constance, 183
Berg, Phil, 334, 342, 344
Bermuda, 171, 263
Bern (Switzerland), 101, 105, 111, 134
Best Russian Short Stories (book), 340, 341
Best Short Stories (O’Brien ed.), 121n.23
“Big Apple, The” (dance), 253
Biltmore Hotel, 46, 65, 226, 310
Bishop, John Peale, 56, 64, 67, 85, 184, 189n.84, 235
Bits of Paradise (F. S. and Z. Fitzgerald), 203n.113
Bleuler, Paul Eugen, 98
Bolero (ballet), 149
Boni & Liveright (publisher), 57
Book-of-the-Month Club, 367, 374
Booth, Miss (ZF’s friend), 375
Boston (Mass.), 352
Brackett, Charles, 303n.18
Brackett girls (Scottie’s acquaintances), 303
Brahms, Johannes, 94
Broadway Melody, The (film), 129n.28
Bromfield, Louis, 189n.83
Brontë, Charlotte and Emily, 329
Brooke, Rupert, 4, 213n.132
Browder, Eleanor, 20–21, 39
Brown Derby (restaurant), 371
Browning, Robert, 12
Browning, Tod, 154n.43
Bruccoli, Matthew J., 42n.48, 53, 56, 171
Bruccoli Collection, 248n.139, 312n.26
Brush, Katherine, 112
Bryce, Viscount, 371
Bryn Mawr School (Baltimore, Md.), 179n.64, 185, 287, 352
Bryson City (N.C.), 292
Buck, Helen, 68, 129
Buffalo (N.Y.), 280
Burgess, Bunny, 68
Burne-Jones, Edward, 158
Butler, Samuel, 137
Byng, Countess of, 341
“Caesar’s Things” (Z. Fitzgerald), 217
Café des Lilas, 63, 69
California, xxxi, 69, 117, 129, 133, 229, 236, 248–49, 275, 295–96, 302, 310, 320, 334, 343, 380. See also Hollywood
Callaghan, Morley, 192
Campbell, Alan, 236, 367
Cannes (France), 60, 69, 71, 103, 344
Cantor, Eddie, 54
Capri (Italy), 56, 62, 275
Carroll, Lewis, 182, 341
Carroll, Mrs., 275n.5
Carroll, Robert S., 217, 221, 234, 236, 241, 243, 245, 248, 255–56, 262, 269, 275–76, 285, 287, 306, 308–10, 316, 319–21, 324, 328, 330–33, 336, 353, 372–73
Case, Frank, 279n.10, 280–81
Catholicism, xxv, 385, 386
Caux (Switzerland), 78, 89, 93, 109–10, 252
Cellini, Benvenuto, 199
Chamberlain, John, 192n.93
Chamberlain, Neville, 341
Chanler, Mrs. Winthrop, 63n.3
Chapel Hill (N.C.), 261
Charles II, king of England, 185
Charles, Lee, 375
Charles Scribner’s Sons (publisher), 5–6, 47, 51, 54, 56–57, 157, 163, 171, 192n.96, 203n.113, 341
Charlotte (N.C.), 240
Chatterton, Ruth, 190
Chekhov, Anton, 340
Chopin (cat), 127
Chopin, Frédéric, 82, 125
Churchill, Jack, 341
Churchill, Lady Randolph, 52, 67, 341
Churchill, Winston, 52, 340
Cincinnati (Ohio), 33
Clark, Eva Mae, 121
“Cloak, The” (Gogol), 340
Collected Writings (Z. Fitzgerald), xiii, 344n.45
College Bazaar (magazine), 378n.57
College Humor (magazine), 203
Collier’s (magazine), 290, 318, 343, 379
Columbia Pictures, 355
Columbia University, 349
Colum, Mary, 191n.89
Compson, Betty, 70
Coney Island (N.Y.), 201
Connecticut, 249
“Cosmopolitan” (F. S. Fitzgerald screenplay), 330n.33, 350n.49
“Cotton-Belt” (Z. Fitzgerald), 127–28
“Count of Darkness, The” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 199n.104
“Couple of Nuts, A” (Z. Fitzgerald), 106n.14, 116n.17, 133, 138, 159, 204
Cowan, Lester, 350n.49, 355–56
Coward, Noël, 106n.15
Cowley, Malcolm, 7, 206
Coxe, Howard, 68n.28
“Crack-Up, The” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 218, 219
Crack-Up, The (F. S. Fitzgerald), xxx, 8
Craig House (Beacon, N.Y.), 177–97
Craven (author), 361
“Crazy Sunday” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 144
“Cruise of the Rolling Junk, The” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 51
Cuba, 269–70, 273, 274–75, 278, 279, 279n.8, 281, 282, 283, 284, 286
“Cuddle up a Little Closer” (song), 66
Curie, Marie, 260, 274
Dalmita, Lily, 128
Dance, Beatrice, 198
Daniels, Mr. and Mrs. Tommy, 194
Dante, 178
“Darling, The” (Chekhov), 340
Debussy, Claude, 84
Decline of the West, The (Spengler), 102
Delamar, Alice, 69
Delplangue, Mademoiselle (governess), 63n.6
Democritus, 187
“Dice, Brass Knuckles & Guitar” (F. S.
Fitzgerald), 66n.12
Dickens, Charles, 156
Dingo bar, 56
“Dog” (F. S. Fitzgerald song), 67n.21
Donaldson, Scott, 7
Dongen, Kees van, 152
Dos Passos, John, 54, 1
61n.53, 189n.84
Dothan (Ala.), 123
Drama Technique (Baker), 161n.53, 163, 191
Dreiser, Theodore, 206
“Drought and the Flood, The” (Z. Fitzgerald), 204
Duke University, 261
du Maurier, Daphne, 343n.44
Duncan, Isadora, 57, 69
Duncan Sisters, 371
Durbin, Deanna, 344
Eager, Claire, 287
“Early Success” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 7
“Echoes of the Jazz Age” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 59–60, 61, 118n.20
Edward the Second (Marlowe), 201
Egorova, Lubov, 57, 60–61, 70–71, 80–81, 86, 88n.5, 195
Einstein, Albert, 187
Elgin, William, 201, 206
Eliot, T. S., 191n.91, 369n.55
Elise, Aunt (FSF’s aunt), 351–52
Ellerslie (Fitzgerald home), 58–60, 63–64, 70, 91, 151, 261
Ellesberry, Katherine, 36, 337
Ellis, Walker, 69n.33
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 181
Encino (Calif.), 245
“End of Everything, The” (S. Fitzgerald), 378n.57
“End of Hate, The” (F. S. Fitzgerald), 290n.15
Engalitcheff, Val (Prince Vladimir N.), 67n.24
England, 51–52, 67
Ervine, St. John, 52, 67
Esquire (magazine), 178, 218–19, 307, 312n.25, 315, 328, 331n.35, 334, 373
Essie (Fitzgerald servant), 181
Esther, Book of, 151
Ethel Walker School (Conn.), 219, 287
Europe, 52, 54, 59, 67, 100–101, 164, 249. See also specific countries
Fadiman, Clifton, 201n.110
Farewell to Arms, A (Hemingway), 374
Farm, The (Bromfield), 189n.83
Fashion Show, 16, 18
Faulkner, William, 106n.16, 137, 158
Faure, Élie, 327
Favorite Recipes of Famous Women, xxvii
Findley, Ruth, 65
Finney, Mrs., 254, 258
Finney, Peaches, 231, 254, 318
Finney, Pete, 254
Finney family, 253, 311
Firestone, Harvey, 66
First and Last (Lardner), 201n.110
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
ability to forgive of, xxx
alcoholic behavior/alcoholism of, xiii, xv, xvi, xxiii, xxix, 57–58, 59, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 77, 86, 90, 92, 113, 168, 170, 179, 198, 216, 218, 219, 220, 231, 235, 248, 269, 270, 287, 314
anxieties of, 5
broken shoulder of, 220–21, 225, 226
burial and reburial of, xxv, 385, 386
and Cuba trip fiasco, 269, 270, 279, 281, 282, 283, 286
daughter, Scottie, and. See Fitzgerald, Frances Scott