F. Scott Fitzgerald was Every Bit the Alcoholic, Grandiose Delusional Dreamer as His Fictional Character Jay Gatsby

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Great Gatsby has sold 25 million copies worldwide and sells 500,000 copies annually. The book has been made into three movies and produced for the theatre. It is considered the Greatest American Novel ever written. Yet, the story of how The Great Gatsby was written has not been told except as embedded chapters of much larger biographies. This story is one of heartbreak, infidelity, struggle, alcoholism, financial hardship, and one man’s perseverance to be faithful to the raw diamond of his talent in circumstances that would have crushed others.
The story of the writing of The Great Gatsby is a story in itself. Fitzgerald had descended into an alcoholic run of parties on Great Neck, New York, where he and Zelda had taken a home. His main source of income was writing for the “slicks,” or magazines of the day, the main source being the Saturday Evening Post, where Fitzgerald’s name on a story got him as much as $4,000. Then on May 1, 1924, he, Zelda, and baby daughter Scottie quietly slipped away from New York on a “dry” steamer to France, the writer in search of sobriety, sanity, and his muse, resulting in the publication of The Great Gatsby a year later.
To tell this fascinating story is today’s guest, William Hazelgrove, author of “Writing Gatsby: The Real Story of the Writing of the Greatest American Novel.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:08.0	If you grew up in the United States and were asked what is the great American novel, for
0:11.8	most your answer would be F Scott that sterled the Great Gatsby.
0:15.0	Many Americans read it in their high school literature classes, and even if they didn't
0:18.0	have to read it under compulsion, they may be one of the 500,000 people who purchased
0:21.8	the book annually, which adds to the over 25 million copies it had been sold worldwide.
0:26.3	The book has been made into three movies and produced for theater.
0:28.9	What most people don't know is that much of the story of the Great Gatsby is autobiographical.
0:34.2	When F Scott Fitzgerald sat down to write the book in 1924, he suffered much of the same
0:38.1	heartbreak, infidelity, struggle, alcoholism, financial hardship, and ultimately trying
0:42.9	to reinvent himself even when it was impossible.
0:45.5	Today's guest is William Hazel Grove, author of the book Writing Gatsby, the real story
0:49.2	of the writing of the greatest American novel.
0:51.4	We look at how by this time in Fitzgerald's life, he descended into an alcoholic run
0:55.0	of parties on Great Neck New York, where he and his wife Zelda ripped.
0:58.6	The book was a massive flop when it was released, and it only became a success after Fitzgerald's
1:02.9	death when the US military selected the book and sent it overseas during World War II as
1:06.6	part of its armed services edition.
1:08.0	So in this episode, we talk all about the relationship between the artist and his art,
1:12.3	and what an artist goes through to produce great art.
1:14.4	We enjoyed this discussion with William Hazel Grove.
1:16.9	And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for work from
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