F. Scott Fitzgerald

8 Stories

First Edition of Frankenstein Fetches a 'Hair-Raising Sum'

Heritage Auctions sets new high price for 3 beloved book titles

(Newser) - The only privately-owned first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein became the pièce de resistance of a rare book auction over the weekend, selling for a "hair-raising sum" of $843,750, nearly triple the estimate, per UPI . Just three first editions of the horror novel are known to...

Alaska School Board Bans Catch-22 , 4 Other Classics
School Board Pulls 5 Classics

School Board Pulls 5 Classics

Business picks up at local bookstore after vote

(Newser) - High school students in an Alaska district will no longer discuss several literary classics in class. The Matanuska-Susitna School Board voted 5-2 last week to remove five titles from the list of books teachers can use in elective English classes, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The books stricken are: Invisible ...

For Sale: House Where Fitzgerald Wrote Gatsby

$3.8M could nab you Long Island home where author wrote seminal work

(Newser) - A piece of literary history is on the block, but it's not exactly the domain of a starving artist: As the BBC reports, the Long Island mansion where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby could be yours for somewhere just north of $3.8 million, per a rep...

Gatsby Just Not That Great
 Gatsby Just Not That Great 
movie review

Gatsby Just Not That Great

Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan star in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation

(Newser) - Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby arrives with much fanfare—but, based on the reviews, it looks like those high hopes might be dashed. Critics are mixed on the film as a whole, though no one disputes that it's as bombastic as might be expected from Luhrmann....

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Handwritten Ledger Goes Online

'Gatsby' author apparently couldn't spell very well

(Newser) - F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby again hits the silver screen in a couple of weeks, and a rare look at some of the author's more mundane writings is getting aired. Fitzgerald's own financial ledger, a detailed handwritten account of his earnings for his various books and...

'Lost' F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Published

'New Yorker' un-rejects smoking story

(Newser) - This week, the New Yorker is publishing a never-before-seen F. Scott Fitzgerald short story—that it initially rejected back in 1936. It's a charming, brief piece about a saleswoman desperate for a cigarette in a disapproving town. In an internal memo at the time, the magazine wrote that the...

Martinis, Vinegar: Famed Writers' Favorite Snacks

Authors look to everything from sherry to popsicles for inspiration

(Newser) - Some of history's greatest writers have relied on "food for thought." For Truman Capote, a daily regimen of coffee, tea, sherry, and martinis was his path to creative greatness. Others kept it simpler: Marcel Proust relied on espresso, while Jesus Land author Julia Scheeres swears by the...

Need a Blurb? Meet the Usual Suspects
Need a Blurb?
Meet the Usual Suspects
OPINION

Need a Blurb? Meet the Usual Suspects

New writers' book jackets reveal the top 10 lazy comparisons

(Newser) - Blurbs for hot new writers' books unfailingly liken them to a handful of known quantities, Chris Rovzar observes in New York. Here are some of the most-abused blurb comparisons:
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald or Edith Wharton. Writing about crumbling, decadent high society? "If you're a boy, you're Scott; if you're
...

8 Stories