Flappers and Philosophers: A Collection of Short Stories
F. Scott Fitzgerald
eBook
(Tingle Books, June 21, 2020)
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His given name, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, was a tribute to his relative Francis Scott Key, who wrote âThe Star Spangled Banner.â Fitzgerald grew up in Buffalo, New York, and Minnesota. His family, Roman Catholics of Irish descent, didnât have much money, but Fitzgerald still managed to attend prep school in New Jersey thanks to financial help from an aunt. He then went to Princeton University for three years but dropped out and enlisted in the army in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. He wrote his first novel while training to be an officer and submitted it to an editor at Scribnerâs, who turned it down. While still in training, Fitzgerald also met Zelda Sayre, a high-society girl from Alabama whom he would eventually marry in 1920. Fortunately, the war ended before he could be deployed to Europe. Fitzgerald is considered the voice of the Lost Generation, the generation that came of age during World War I. Heâs also considered the ultimate explicator of the Jazz Age of the 1920s, a period characterized by individualism and decadence. Although he is best known for his novels, he wrote about 160 short stories. The number is difficult to pin down precisely because many of his pieces blur the lines between story, essay, and article. âBabylon Revisitedâ was written in 1930 and published in 1931 in the Saturday Evening Post. Fitzgeraldâs editor, Malcolm Cowley, wrote that in comparison with other stories of Fitzgeraldâs, âBabylon Revisitedâ evidences âless regret for the past and more dignity in the face of real sorrow.â First published in 1920, Flappers and Philosophers marked F. Scott Fitzgerald's entry into the realm of the short story, in which he adroitly proved himself "a master of the mechanism of short story technique" (Boston Transcript). Several of his most beloved tales are represented in this collection of eight, including "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" and "Head and Shoulders," with their particularly O. HenryÂlike twists; the poignant "Benediction" and "The Cut-Glass Bowl"; and "The Offshore Pirate," the octet's opening and most romantic story. It is a collection of masterful short works from an American literary icon that led The New York Times Book Review to note that "[no one] can fail to recognize Mr. Fitzgerald's talent and genius."