[75] The failure of Save Me the Waltz, and Scott's scathing criticism of her for having written it—he called her "plagiaristic"[76] and a "third-rate writer"[76]—crushed her spirits. Zelda agreed to marry him once the book was published; he, in turn, promised to bring her to New York with "all the iridescence of the beginning of the world." Jay Mandel Scott is an alcoholic and suffering his long term tuberculosis. Save Me the Waltz became the focus of many literary studies that explored different aspects of her work: how the novel contrasted with Scott's take on the marriage in Tender Is the Night;[104] how the commodity culture that emerged in the 1920s placed stress on modern women;[102] and how these attitudes led to a misrepresentation of "mental illness" in women. Zelda is trying desperately to revive their love and marriage, Scott driven by a queasy mix of ambivalence and the drive to his long term soul mate. Nine women, including Zelda, died. He was both a participant in and critic of the culture of consumerism and excess that marked the period he coined the “Jazz Age.” Scott and Zelda’s relationship was a driving force in their creativity. It seems to me that on one page I recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage, and, also, scraps of letters which, though considerably edited, sound to me vaguely familiar. "[96] New York City's borough of Manhattan's Battery Park's resident wild turkey Zelda (d. 2014)[97] was also named after her, because according to legend during one of Fitzgerald's nervous breakdowns, she went missing and was found in Battery Park, apparently having walked several miles downtown. Mark Twain. Though the Great Depression had struck America, Scribner agreed to publish her book, and a printing of 3,010 copies was released on October 7, 1932. They were tastemakers, New York’s “it” couple. Her father's reputation was something of a safety net, preventing her social ruin, but Southern women of the time were expected to be delicate, docile and accommodating. She was bright, but uninterested in her lessons. Also, in the case of bacon, do not turn the fire too high, or you will have to get out of the house for a week. "[39] Zelda described the flapper: The Flapper awoke from her lethargy of sub-deb-ism, bobbed her hair, put on her choicest pair of earrings and a great deal of audacity and rouge and went into the battle. The era was marked by endless parties, daring style, and glamour, all sparked by an economic boom, which brought a spurning of social mores and a cultural awakening. [36], As The Beautiful and Damned neared publication, Burton Rascoe, the freshly appointed literary editor of the New York Tribune, approached Zelda for an opportunity to entice readers with a cheeky review of Scott's latest work. [26], Scott and Zelda quickly became celebrities of New York, as much for their wild behavior as for the success of This Side of Paradise. When he received the proofs from his novel he fretted over the title: Trimalchio in West Egg, just Trimalchio or Gatsby, Gold-hatted Gatsby, or The High-bouncing Lover. She was bright, but uninterested in her lessons. She was a writer, a journalist (for The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Northern Virginia Sun, and others), and a prominent member of the Democratic Party. For examples of how F. Scott Fitzgerald may be licensed, please download our Look Book. I was her great reality, often the only liaison agent who could make the world tangible to her. From the start, their courtship was both passionate and tempestuous. The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald. Zelda believed, her biographer Milford said, that Scott's work contained "an American temperament grounded in belief in oneself and 'will-to-survive' that Scott's contemporaries had relinquished. [16] Scott was not the only man courting Zelda, and the competition only drove Scott to want her more. She wrote to literary critic Edmund Wilson, who had agreed to edit the book, musing on his legacy. She did not get better, nor did she finish the novel. The immediate success of Scott's first novel This Side of Paradise brought them into contact with high society, but their marria… "[11] Zelda was more than a mere muse, however—after she showed Scott her personal diary, he used verbatim excerpts from it in his novel. In 1921, while Scott was working to finish his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, Zelda discovered she's pregnant. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society offers a wonderful way to connect with others who love and promote the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was released in September 1931, and the Fitzgeralds returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where her father, Judge Sayre, was dying. Zelda was unable to attend his funeral in Rockville, Maryland. He expected to be sent to France, but was instead assigned to Camp Mills, Long Island. "[46] In Fitzgerald's, "A Life in Letters," Fitzgerald referred to the Jozan affair in his August letter to Ludlow Fowler. [61] In September 1929, she was invited to join the ballet school of the San Carlo Opera Ballet Company in Naples, but, as close as this was to the success she desired, she declined the invitation. For contest rules and submission instructions: https://www.thefitzgeraldmuseum.org/20202021-literary-contest. [15], According to Nancy Milford, Scott and Zelda's first encounter was at a country club dance in Montgomery,[4] which Scott fictionalised in his novel The Great Gatsby, when he describes Jay Gatsby's first encounter with Daisy Buchanan, although he transposed the location in the novel to a train station. From the mid-1930s, Zelda spent the rest of her life in various stages of mental distress.