Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise (26 page)
Read Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise Online
Authors: Sally Cline
In Scott’s novel the ‘Diary’ section rushes through in precisely Zelda’s style. Take these lines:
April 11th … I’m gradually losing faith in any man being susceptible to fatal injuries …
April 21st … Anthony … called and sounded sweet on the phone – so I broke a date for him … I feel I’d break anything for him, including the ten commandments and my neck …
April 24th … What grubworms women are to crawl on their bellies through colorless marriages! Marriage was created not to be a background but to need one.
63
Quickwitted Zelda, though somewhat slow to catch on to the implications of this practice of unacknowledged ‘borrowing’, had
begun to do so by the time she was asked by Burton Rascoe, the
New
York
Tribune’
s
book critic, to review her husband’s book.
In her first published signed article, ‘Friend Husband’s Latest’, she remarked acidly: ‘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.’
In her review Zelda pointed out pleasantly: ‘Mr Fitzgerald … seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.’ Though Zelda’s review was partly a joke she made a serious criticism: ‘The other things I didn’t like … I mean the unimportant things – were the literary references and the attempt to convey a profound air of erudition. It reminds me in its more soggy moments of the essays I used to get up in school at the last minute by looking up strange names in the
Encyclopaedia
Britannica
.’
64
Matthew J. Bruccoli says Zelda’s ‘criticism is just, for the novel is intellectually pretentious’.
65
Scott, amused and proud of Zelda’s review, ignored any serious undercurrent. Edmund Wilson wrote to Scott: ‘Convey all my recommendations to Zelda, whose review of The Damned I thought fine and whose thing in The Metropolitan I liked less.’
66
Wilson was referring to
Metropolitan
Magazine
which together with
McCall’s
had been sufficiently impressed by Zelda’s review to invite her to contribute articles on the Flapper. She wrote four features: ‘Eulogy on the Flapper’, ‘Does A Moment of Revolt Come Sometime To Every Married Man?’, ‘The Super-Flapper’ and ‘Where Do Flappers Go?’ All four were paid for, three were published.
It was the slow small start to her professional writing life, though it was hard for both Fitzgeralds to see it like that yet. However, Scott did devote a page of his 1922 Ledger to ‘Zelda’s earnings’, which totalled $815. She was paid $15 by
New
York
Tribune
for her review; $50 by
Metropolitan
Magazine
for ‘Eulogy on the Flapper’ (June 1922), $250 by
McCall’s
for ‘Does A Moment of Revolt Come Sometime To Every Married Man?’ (March 1924) and $500 for ‘The Super-Flapper’, which remains unlocated, presumably unpublished. The articles appeared under Zelda’s by-line, but alongside ran the explanation that she was Scott Fitzgerald’s wife.
McCall’s
commissioned her to write a 2,500-word article on the Flapper at ten cents a word. In October 1922 they sent her $300 for a feature, ‘Where Do Flappers Go?’, but did not publish it. There are two curious points: firstly, this $300 is not listed in Scott’s careful notes; secondly,
McCall’s
in October 1925
did
publish ‘What Became of the Flappers?’, possibly the same article, with Scott’s piece ‘Our
Young Rich Boys’, under the joint title ‘What Became of Our Flappers and Our Sheiks?’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.
67
It is worth examining ‘What Became of the Flappers?’ to see how similar Zelda’s writing style was to her speech: witty, rhythmic, highly descriptive. Each sentence is balanced, with substantial repetition and a jaunty edge. ‘The flapper springs full-grown, like Minerva, from the head of her once-déclassé father, Jazz, upon whom she lavishes affection and reverence, and deepest filial regard … The best flapper is reticent emotionally and courageous morally. You always know what she thinks, but she does all her feeling alone.’
68
In ‘Eulogy’ Zelda held that the Flapper was deceased. Her outer accoutrements had been bequeathed to girls’ schools, shop girls, and small-town belles. Nothing could replace ‘the dear departed … who will live by her accomplishments and not by her Flapping’. Never again would a girl say ‘“I do not want to be respectable because respectable girls are not attractive.”’ Never again would a girl arrive at the knowledge that ‘“boys
do
dance most with the girls they kiss most”’ or that ‘“men
will
marry the girls they could kiss before they had asked papa”’.
Zelda lamented the death of the Flapper who bobbed her hair, put on ‘a great deal of audacity and rouge’, ‘flirted because it was fun to flirt’, ‘refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring’.
69
Above the ‘Eulogy’ article is a marvellous sketch of Zelda by Gordon Bryant, who caught both her intense gaze and the flicker of regret in her eyes. The regret was about to intensify.
1
ZSF
to
FSF
, late summer/early fall 1930,
Life
in
Letters,
p. 191.
2
St Paul itself, the state capital, known as ‘the last city of the east’, which housed many Fitzgerald residencies, was originally called
Pig’s Eye after a shifty French-Canadian fur trader who sold whiskey at a Mississippi river landing in the 1840s.
3
Scott wrote the story in 1919 before Zelda visited St Paul,
FSF
,
The
Ice
Palace,
Babylon
Revisited
and
Other
Stories,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1971, p. 10.
4
FSF
to Marie Hersey Hamm, 28 Oct. 1936,
CO
187, Box 49,
PUL
.
5
Owned by Mackey J. Thompson.
6
ZSF
, ‘The Girl The Prince Liked’,
Collected
Writings,
ed. Bruccoli, pp. 311–12.
7
Held at Ramaley Hall on Grand Avenue. Scott had joined in 1908.
8
Xandra Kalman to Lloyd Hackl; Hackl to the author, 1999.
9
Born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, 13 May 1813, Daniel A. Robertson became an editor and a US Marshal in Ohio. In Minnesota he founded the Horticultural Society, was editor of the Minnesota
Democrat
and served as a member of the Minnesota legislature 1859–60.
10
481 Laurel Ave: Scott’s birthplace. 623 Summit Ave: Scott’s grandmother Louisa McQuillan’s home. Scott visited for one month in summer 1899. 294 Laurel Ave: Louisa McQuillan’s next home. Scott and Annabel stayed there in 1908 when the family moved back to St Paul. Their parents stayed at the home of John A. Fulton at 239 Summit Ave. 514 Holly Avenue: Scott and family moved there September 1909. 509 Holly Ave: Scott and family moved to this rowhouse September 1910. 499 Holly Ave: Scott and family moved there in late 1911 and stayed until 1915. Between 1915 and 1922 the Edward Fitzgeralds lived at 593 Summit Ave and 599 Summit Ave.
11
FSF
to Sinclair Lewis, 26 Jan. 1921,
Letters
of
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald,
ed. Turnbull, p. 487; to Burton Rascoe, Dec. 1920,
Correspondence
of
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald,
ed. Bruccoli and Duggan, p. 73.
12
ZSF
to
MP
, 1921, Scribner’s Author Files,
CO
101, Box 53, Folder Zelda Fitzgerald 1921–1944,
PUL
.
13
This phrase, used by Minnesotans about their key characteristic of kindness, was explained by Lloyd Hackl to the author.
14
Mizener,
Far
Side
of
Paradise,
p. 150.
15
David Knight calls Alabama this in
Save
Me
The
Waltz.
ZSF
,
Collected
Writings,
p. 39.
16
Once Zelda began painting seriously in 1925 she gave Xandra many of her favourite paintings.
17
Xandra Kalman to Lloyd C. Hackl, St Paul, as reported by Hackl to the author, St Paul, 1999. Hackl uses this in ‘Fitzgerald in St Paul: An Oral History Portrait’, Minnesota Historical Society.
18
In the early days of their marriage Zelda affectionately called Scott Goofo or Goofy. In later letters she called him Deo, or D.O. or Do-Do possibly from the Latin word for God.
19
FSF
,
The
Great
Gatsby,
Abacus, London, 1992, p. 20.
20
Lanahan,
Scottie
…, p. 22.
21
ZSF
to Ludlow Fowler, winter 1921,
CO
183, Box 5, Folder 4,
PUL
.
22
Bruccoli
et
al.,
eds.,
Romantic
Egoists,
p. 87.
23
ZSF
,
Waltz,
Collected
Writings,
p. 57.
24
ZSF
to
FSF
, late summer/early fall 1930,
Life
in
Letters,
p. 191.
25
Mizener,
Far
Side
of
Paradise,
p. 151.
26
Bruccoli
et
al.,
eds.,
Romantic
Egoists,
p. 92.
27
Until June 1922. The street was named after Aaron Goodrich, Xandra’s great-grandfather. St Paul historical researcher Lloyd C. Hackl calls it Goodrich
Street
in his
‘Still
Home
to
Me’:
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald
and
St
Paul,
Adventure Publications, Cambridge, Minnesota, p. 52.
28
This is curious because before Scottie’s birth, as they drove past the Catholic Church, Scott had muttered to himself: ‘God damn the Catholic Church: God damn the Church; God damn God.’ Reported by Scott’s friend Arthur Hartwell to Mizener (Mizener,
Far
Side
of
Paradise,
p. 151) and to Mayfield (Mayfield,
Exiles,
p. 74).
29
Barron had always encouraged Scott’s writing and had engaged with him in
philosophical
discussions.
30
Her family nickname was Scottie. The Fitzgeralds had initially thought of calling the baby Patricia and on a few occasions Zelda called her Pat but it never stuck.
31
Author’s conversations with Lloyd Hackl, 1998, 1999.
32
Hackl,
F
.
Scott
Fitzgerald
and
St
Paul,
p. 13.
33
ZSF
, ‘The Girl The Prince Liked’,
Collected
Writings,
p. 313.
34
ZSF
to Ludlow Fowler, winter 1921,
CO
183, Box 5, Folder 4,
PUL
.
35
Hergesheimer had become suddenly famous for
Cytherea.
36
Mayfield,
Exiles,
pp. 77–8.
37
FSF
, ‘The Ice Palace’, written Dec. 1919, published
Saturday
Evening
Post,
22 May 1920;
Flappers
and
Philosophers,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, Sep. 1920.
38
The novel was initially called ‘The Demon Lover’ (1919), then ‘Darling Heart’ (1920), then ‘The Flight of the Rocket’ (Aug. 1920), then at Christmas 1920 ‘The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy’ and finally (Feb. 1921)
The
Beautiful
and
Damned.
An abridged version in seven instalments was published in
Metropolitan
Magazine
(Sep. 1921 to Mar. 1922).
The
Smart
Set
bought an excerpt from Book 2 ch. 2 (Feb. 1922).
39
MP
to
FSF
, 27 Dec. 1921,
Dear
Scott/Dear
Max,
pp. 49–50. Due to Zelda’s suggestions the book ends on a sardonic note as the broken hero whispers to himself: ‘“I showed them … It was a hard fight, but I didn’t give up and I came through!”’
The
Beautiful
and
Damned,
p. 364.
40
FSF
to Charles Scribner II, 12 Aug. 1920,
Life
in
Letters,
p. 41.
41
Mary Gordon, Introduction,
Zelda
Fitzgerald:
The
Collected
Writings,
p. xxiv, is very
perceptive
on this point.
42
Mizener,
Far
Side
of
Paradise,
p. 112.
43
Alexander McKaig, Diary, 17 Apr. 1921. Years later Zelda revealed in her letters the
intellectual
detachment Scott had depended upon: ‘Nobody has ever been able to experience what they have thoroughly understood – or understand what they have experienced until they have achieved a detachment that renders them incapable of repeating that experience.’
ZSF
to
FSF
, Mar. 1932,
PUL
.
44
FSF
to
MP
,
c
. 31 Jan. 1922,
Dear
Scott/Dear
Max,
p. 52.
45
Carolyn Shafer compares Zelda’s crayon sketch thematically and in terms of its
composition
to Botticelli’s 1482
The
Birth
of
Venus.
Each work celebrates a particular era’s
emerging
female image. But whereas Botticelli’s Renaissance goddess rises from sea foam, nude but modest, hands held gracefully over breasts and vagina, Zelda’s naked Flapper figure rises from champagne bubbles, bold and brazen.
46
FSF
to Charles Scribner II, 12 Aug. 1920,
Life
in
Letters,
p. 41.
47
H. L. Mencken, ‘Fitzgerald and Others’,
The
Smart
Set,
vol. XLVII, Apr. 1922, pp. 140–1.
48
He had called in at St Paul to see them during her pregnancy.
49
Wilson to Stanley Dell, 19 Feb. 1921,
Letters
on
Literature
and
Politics,
p. 56.
50
FSF
,
Beautiful
and
Damned,
p. 132.
51
Ibid., p. 300.
52
Montgomery relatives and friends to the author, 1999.
53
FSF
,
Beautiful
and
Damned,
pp. 175, 149.
54
FSF
to Phyllis Duganne Parker, fall 1920,
Correspondence
of F.
Scott
Fitzgerald,
p. 71.
55
FSF
to
ZSF
, ‘Written with Zelda gone to the Clinique’,
c
. summer 1930,
Life
in
Letters,
p. 189. He may not have sent this letter.
56
John Peale Bishop, ‘Three Brilliant Young Novelists’,
Collected
Essays
of
John
Peale
Bishop,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1948, pp. 229–30.
57
Mayfield,
Exiles,
p. 62.
58
Wilson was preparing an essay about Fitzgerald for
The
Bookman.
59
FSF
to Wilson, Jan. 1922, Yale University.
60
Critic André Le Vot suggests ‘there are the passages directly
inspired
by
Zelda’s letters, which are attributed to Gloria [author’s italics]’. Le Vot,
F.
Scott
Fitzgerald,
p. 98.
61
FSF
to Perkins,
c
. 21 Feb. 1920,
Dear
Scott/Dear
Max,
p. 29.
62
FSF
,
Beautiful
and
Damned,
p. 111. Scott used a parody of Minnie Sayre’s belief in
theosophy,
a religion based on reincarnation, but reinvented it as ‘bilphism’ so as not to hurt her feelings.
63
FSF
,
Beautiful
and
Damned,
pp. 121–5.
64
ZSF
, ‘Friend Husband’s Latest’,
New
York
Tribune,
2 Apr. 1922, section 5, p. 11;
Collected
Writings,
pp. 387–9.
65
Bruccoli,
Epic
Grandeur,
p. 192.
66
Wilson to
FSF
, 26 May 1922, Wilson,
Letters,
p. 85.
67
There is no mention of this piece in
FSF
’s Ledger.
68
ZSF
, ‘What Became of the Flappers?’,
McCall’s,
Oct. 1925;
Collected
Writings,
pp. 397–9.
69
ZSF
, ‘Eulogy on the Flapper’,
Metropolitan
Magazine,
June 1922;
Collected
Writings,
pp. 391–2.