The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald

xviii, 615 pp. ...a wide selection of Scott Fitzgerald's letters--probably the most interesting, open, and appealing letters in American literary history. They admit us to the tension and drama of Fitzgerald's private life. And his life as a writer is fully here too: the detailed record of his concern with his own work, and the moving evidence of his interest in what his contemporaries were doing. Andrew Turnbull has grouped the letters around the people who were closest and most important to Fitzgerald. The book opens with a section of letters to Scottie, his daughter, which are extraordinarily self-revealing and touching. These are followed by the letters to Zelda; and then a major group to Maxwell Perkins. The letters to Ernest Hemingway give a remarkable insight into that fierce friendship; and this volume includes many more to Edmund Wilson than were published in The Crack-Up. John Peale Bishop, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Christian Gauss, Harold Ober--these (and many more) were the people to whom Scott Fitzgerald wrote as a close friend. Through all the letters there is Scott Fitzgerald's unique mark: grace, candor, and generosity of spirit.