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FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. Autograph Letter Signed to John J. Fitzgerald (no relation). 3 pages, 8vo, hand-addressed from 38 West 59th St, New York City, folds; with a signed and annotated photograph of zelda fitzgerald. Photograph is 140x89 mm; 3 1/2x5 1/2 inches, clean separation across center. Mimeographed copy of John Fitzgerald's letter included. New York, circa December 1920
a newly discovered and unpublished early letter by the great american novelist.
Fitzgerald was inspired to offer this fairly lengthy and revealing reply to John J. Fitzgerald, an enthusiastic reader of his work because, as he writes, it is seldom that a fan letter "is any more than a gushing pangyric (sp!)." John Fitzgerald''s 2-page typed letter comments on This Side of Paradise and offers a suggestion for a possible sequel.
The author responds by explaining that he is indeed working on a continuation of the story which will be serialized in The Metropolitan, though with different character names and backgrounds because he "detest[s] serials" (this would become The Beautiful and Damned). He reveals that in this sequel the characters Rosalind and Amory marry (meaning himself and Zelda in real life). John Fitzgerald''s wish was that Amory marry Clara. The author informs him that Clara is based on his cousin in Norfolk, Va., and humorously encloses a photograph of Zelda upon which he has written "This is `Rosalind'' Don''t you prefer her to Clara? F. Scott Fitzgerald." He also reveals his model for the character Monsignor Darcy: "`Darcy'' was Sigourney Fay, a monsignori & my best friend. When he died the church became an utterly unreal but beautiful story to me." And in a similar vein: "I can see from your letter that you are a Catholic. I was a very strong one, very nearly a priest, and then when adversity really came & I struggled out of it it seemed that it was at first myself I must look to."
From another passage: "Of course commercially I am at present a success--probably making as much as any three men in my class at Princeton all together yet in my dealings with either the magazines or the movies or the publishers I have found them, as a class, dull, unimaginative, with a vague philosophy compounded of a dozen or so popular phrases." He writes that his current favorite authors are Conrad, Haeckel, Nietche [sic], Anatole France, and H. L. Mencken and confesses that "except for Benediction, The Ice Palace & The Cut Glass Bowl, my collection of stories is trash--to tickle the yokelry of Kansas and get enough money to live well." He closes with "I am utterly cynical about any moral law or the need of any. The one thing I am sure of is my love of beauty & even that fades & passes."
The Fitzgeralds moved to this New York City address in October 1920, six months after their marriage. In May of 1921 they would take their first trip to Europe and, soon after their return, move to Scott''s home city of St. Paul where Zelda gave birth to Scottie in October. Not in the M. J. Bruccoli or Turnbull edition of Fitzgerald letters and unpublished.
