Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Page 36
In the 1940s, Zelda worked on a novel she called Caesar’s Things and painted some of her most charming and whimsical works. She did a series of cityscapes depicting New York City and Paris locations, as well as scenes from fairy tales, and made a collection of intricately done, Arthurian-themed paper dolls. All these she exhibited at various galleries, and enjoyed genuine critical acclaim. Many of the paintings have since gone missing or been destroyed, but others have been preserved and are still sometimes exhibited publicly.
Scottie and Zelda’s relationship following Scott’s death was not always easy. Having been ill during Scottie’s most formative years, Zelda was not as close to her daughter as Scott had been, and the two of them sometimes differed in their opinions on appropriate ways to ensure Scott’s legacy. Zelda was delighted, though, with Scottie’s 1943 marriage to a well-off tax attorney. The births of a grandson in 1946 and a granddaughter in early 1948 brought her real joy. Scottie, who would later have two more children, worked as a journalist, wrote musical comedies for charity events, struggled with alcoholism, and eventually returned to live in Montgomery, where she encouraged young women to get involved in politics.
While Zelda undoubtedly suffered from some type of mental illness, one of her physicians at Highland Hospital, Dr. Irving Pine, believed that Zelda had been largely misunderstood by her other doctors, as well as misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. According to more recent opinions of doctors who have reviewed her medical records, she had what’s now called bipolar disorder, which was initially complicated by alcohol use and weakness from excessive physical activity. She suffered debilitating and permanent side effects from some of the very treatments that were supposed to make her well. The cumulative effect of years of “reeducation” and drug therapies may have contributed to her later infrequent episodes of depression and insecurity.
When these episodes occurred, she would go to Highland for brief periods of what she called “stabilization.” It was her fourth such stay, begun in January 1948, that would be her last. During the night of March 10, Highland Hospital caught fire; Zelda, who had been out to a dance earlier that evening and then took her prescribed sedative before bed, was one of nine women who were trapped inside. All nine perished in the fire.
Zelda’s remains were interred alongside Scott’s at Rockville Union Cemetery. In 1975, however, Scottie prevailed in her efforts to have her parents’ graves moved to the Fitzgerald family plot and had a marker engraved with the sentence that ends The Great Gatsby:
SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS AGAINST
THE CURRENT, BORNE BACK
CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST
AUTHOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is a work of fiction, but because it’s based on the lives of real people, I have tried to adhere as much as possible to the established particulars of those people’s lives.
It’s impossible to find universal agreement, however, about many of those particulars. Where the Fitzgeralds are concerned, there is so much material with so many differing views and biases that I often felt as if I’d been dropped into a raging argument between what I came to call Team Zelda and Team Scott. For every biographer or scholar who believes Zelda derailed Scott’s life, there is one who believes Scott ruined Zelda’s. Further, popular culture has elevated certain aspects of the Fitzgeralds’ lives to myth. (For example, there is steadfast belief but no apparent facts regarding Scott cavorting in the fountain outside the Plaza.) In my efforts to determine where fact gave way to opinion, and where gossip had grown into belief, I tracked differing accounts against established time lines and compared multiple sources, including ones compiled by the Fitzgeralds themselves.
The richest, and in many ways most reliable, resource was the collection of letters the two of them exchanged during their courtship, and then throughout the periods when Zelda was in the hospital and Scott was working in Hollywood. Invaluable, too, were the collections of letters Scott exchanged with his friends, his editor, his agent, and Ernest Hemingway. While all the letters that appear within the novel are my creations, they are inspired by this amazing body of correspondence.
Fiction based on real people differs from nonfiction in that the emphasis is not on factual minutiae, but rather on the emotional journey of the characters. I’ve striven to create the most plausible story possible, based upon all the evidence at hand. Of particular interest to me was the exceptional animosity between Zelda and Ernest Hemingway. The animosity was real, yet I found no exploration of the issue, no explanation of why it began. Popular belief is that Hemingway simply knew Zelda was “crazy” and bad for Scott right away, but the record shows that he was uncritical and quite warm toward her for a while—until suddenly he was not. I approached the mystery of why much as a detective might, considering known motivations, character, and events, to arrive at the scenario I present in the novel.
* * *
I want to express my gratitude to the following biographers and editors, whose books and articles about Zelda, Scott, Hemingway, and the Murphys made it possible for me to envision the Fitzgeralds’ journey so thoroughly: Linda Wagner-Martin, Nancy Milford, Sally Cline, Kendall Taylor, Amanda Vaill, Andrew Turnbull, John Kuehl, Jackson Bryer, Cathy W. Barks, Mary Jo Tate, Kenneth Schuyler Lynn, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. Special recognition goes to Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald for working with Scribner’s to create The Romantic Egoists, a rich photographic representation of her parents’ scrapbooks. I recommend it highly.
Also invaluable were Zelda’s and Scott’s creative works—their stories, novels, and articles, many of which are mentioned here in the novel. For an insightful look at Scott’s early work, see the story collection Before Gatsby. All of Zelda’s published work can be found in The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald. Both books (and many others about the Fitzgeralds) were edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, whose high regard for them was lifelong and greatly informs my own.
My respect and affection for both Scott and Zelda inspired this book, which, again, is not a biography but a novelist’s attempt to imagine what it was like to be Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.
* * *
It’s my good fortune to have the support of many friends and family members, including my colleagues from the Fiction Writers Co-op and beyond, members of the Hasenladies Book Club, Pam Litchfield, Sharon Kurtzman, Larry and Jean Lubliner, Michelle and Chuck Rubovits, Bryan and Susan Fowler, Earl Fowler, Pat and Bernie Clarke, Maggie Balistreri-Clarke, Ed Clarke, Jason and Linda Timmons, Adele Dellava, my husband, Andrew, and our boys.
Many thanks to the Weymouth Center for the Arts in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where I was writer-in-residence twice during the creation of this book. To work in what was once novelist James Boyd’s home—a home visited by Thomas Wolfe and Scott Fitzgerald, among others—was a genuine privilege and pleasure.
I want to express my enduring appreciation and gratitude to Wendy Sherman, who has been coach and shepherd and friend these seven years, and to Jenny Meyer, for always telling it true.
I’m so pleased to have joined forces with Lisa Highton and the Two Roads team, who are bringing Z to readers in the UK and many points beyond.
I am honored by and grateful for the enthusiasm St. Martin’s Press has shown for this book. In particular, I want to thank Dori Weintraub for her myriad contributions; Silissa Kenney, Laura Flavin, Laura Clark, Stephanie Hargadon, Steven Seighman, and Olga Grlic for their invaluable efforts; and Sally Richardson, whose faith and enthusiasm mean the world to me. Sally is purely a wonder. Finally, I give my forever-affection to the wise and brilliant Hope Dellon, editor extraordinaire.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THERESE ANNE FOWLER is a Illinois native and a graduate of North Carolina State University, where she earned a BA in sociology and an MFA in creative writing. She taught undergraduate fiction writing and was editorial assistant for the literary magazine Obsidian III before leaving to write fiction full-time. Therese has two grown sons and two nearly grown stepsons, and currently li
ves with her husband in Florida. Visit her on Facebook or at ThereseAnneFowler.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD. Copyright © 2013 by Therese Anne Fowler. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Olga Grlic
Cover photograph by Sasha/Getty Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print version as follows:
Fowler, Therese.
Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald / Therese Anne Fowler. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-02865-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02864-8 (e-book)
1. Fitzgerald, Zelda, 1900–1948—Fiction. 2. Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896–1940—Fiction. 3. Author’s spouses—Fiction. 4. Authors—Fiction. 5. Nineteen twenties—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.O857Z23 2013
813'.6—dc23
2013003452
e-ISBN 9781250028648
First Edition: April 2013