recommended Reading
This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to give an introduction to some of the most important books by and about F. Scott Fitzgerald.
NOvels by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
This Side of Paradise, 1920.
Fitzgerald’s first novel, started when he was in the Army and re-written and finished when he lived at 599 Summit Avenue in Saint Paul during the summer of 1919. The novel is highly autobiographical, and gives a detailed account of Princeton University life during the 1910’s. The Beautiful and Damned, 1922.
Fitzgerald’s second novel, he finished proofing and editing the book when he and Zelda lived at 626 Goodrich Avenue in late 1921 and early 1922.The Great Gatsby, 1925.
Fitzgerald’s third novel was largely written in Europe in 1924. Nick Carraway is from Saint Paul, although the city is never named in the novel. There’s a beautiful passage at the end of the novel where Nick remembers going back to the Midwest at winter break, and Fitzgerald name-checks several of his Saint Paul friends. Fitzgerald didn’t write any of Gatsby in Minnesota, but the last short story he wrote before leaving Saint Paul in the fall of 1922 was “Winter Dreams,” which he later described as a “sort of 1st draft of the Gatsby idea.” Tender Is the Night, 1934.
Fitzgerald’s fourth novel had a long gestation, finally appearing nine years after The Great Gatsby. Set on the French Riviera, Tender follows American expatriates Dick and Nicole Diver. The Last Tycoon, 1941.
Published posthumously, Fitzgerald was working on this novel about Hollywood when he died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940. Adaptation:
The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written and illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard, 2021.
Woodman-Maynard wrote the adaptation and did the gorgeous watercolor illustrations for her version of The Great Gatsby. Woodman-Maynard succeeds in capturing the essence of Fitzgerald’s brilliant novel and transforming it into a new medium. Short Story Collections:
There are many different collections of Fitzgerald’s short stories. One that focuses on Fitzgerald’s Saint Paul stories is The St. Paul Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 2004, edited by Patricia Hampl and Dave Page. Collects most of the short stories that Fitzgerald wrote in Saint Paul, or that have a Minnesota setting.
Essays about Fitzgerald’s works:
The Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Laura Rattray and Linda Wagner-Martin, Bloomsbury Publishing, due out January 2025.
The new anthology of writings about Fitzgerald features essays by leading Fitzgerald scholars Jackson R. Bryer, Kirk Curnutt, Jade Broughton Adams, James L.W. West III, and Jennifer Nolan. It also features Mark C. Taylor’s essay “’The Cruise of the Rolling Junk,’ Scott and Zelda’s Forgotten Road Trip.” Books about Fitzgerald in minnesota:
F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: Toward the Summit, by Dave Page and John Koblas, 1996.
This book is a narrative history of Fitzgerald’s life in Minnesota from his birth in 1896 until he left in 1922.F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: The Writer and His Friends at Home, by Dave Page, photographs by Jeff Krueger, 2017.
This coffee table book is the most complete account of Fitzgerald’s life in Saint Paul. If you want to know if a house or building has a connection to Fitzgerald, this is the place to look.A Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul: A Traveler’s Companion to His Homes and Haunts, by John Koblas, 1978, updated 2004.
This is a great resource about Fitzgerald’s life in Saint Paul, and an excellent starting point for gathering information.