If you like learning about great American authors, or if you had to do a paper on F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ve come to the right place. Fitzgerald, author of The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, This Side of Paradise, The Love of the Last Tycoon, and numerous wonderful short stories, was born in 1896 and died of a heart attack in 1940. His tortured relationship with Zelda Fitzgerald (nee Sayre) has been the focus of many books and papers, and his last year of life was depicted in two different films: Beloved Infidel (1959) and Last Call (2002). The books outlined below are scholarly sources only, so feel free to use them for your term paper!
Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Matthew J. Bruccoli
As biographies go, you won’t find any better accounts on Fitzgerald than Bruccoli’s opus. A meticulously researched, brilliantly-executed piece of scholarly non-fiction, it includes every recoverable detail on Fitzgerald. Bruccoli, a preeminent Fitzgerald expert who devoted his life to Fitzgerald study, was an English professor at the University of South Carolina until his death in 2008. In addition to his extensive research and contributions to Fitzgerald studies, he and his wife also collected Fitzgerald memorabilia and maintained a friendship with Scott and Zelda’s daughter, “Scottie” until the time of her death.
This book is the first book you should read when considering doing research on Fitzgerald. It is not only a wonderful resource, it is very easy to read and organized very well.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Columbia, SC.: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.
ISBN: 1570034559
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Critical Reception by Jackson Bryer
This is a compilation of critical responses regarding F. Scott Fitzgerald, and a great jumping off point to further research. No picture is available, and the volume is a bit hard to find, but if you can it is an indespensible piece of Fitzgerald scholarship by an expert in the field.
Also see Bryer’s other works – The Critical Reputation of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Bibliographical Study, F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Twenty-First Century, The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: New approaches in criticism.
Bryer, Jackson. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Critical Reception. New York: Burt Franklin, 1978.
ISBN: 0-89102-111-6
The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald![Cambridge]()
Edited by Ruth Prigozy, one of the experts on F. Scott Fitzgerald, this collection of essays covers the main topics covered by Fitzgerald scholarship. Prigozy herself introduces the book with an essay titled “Introduction: Scott, Zelda, and the culture of celebrity,” and the rest of the contributors cover topics far and wide. Rena Sanderson writes an essay called “Women in Fitzgerald’s fiction,” while Fitzgerald expert Bryant Mangum covers “The short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.” The book contains a helpful chronology of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s life, and a very helpful bibilography that will get you on the right track in your research.
Prigozy, Ruth (ed), The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
ISBN: 978-0521624749
F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography by Matthew Bruccoli
Nobody could do a bibliography quite like Bruccoli, and this one is essential for those interested in Fitzgerald scholarship. Part of the Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography, this hard-to-find bibliography is a one-stop resource for all work published by and about Fitzgerald up to the time of its publication. Check out both editions.
Bruccoli, Matthew. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972
Bruccoli, Matthew. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography. Revised edition. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987.
ISBN: 978-0822935605
F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters: A New Collection Edited and Annotated by Matthew J. Bruccoli
What can I say? The guy knew his stuff. This collection of letters is so very interesting because it gives real information on Fitzgerald in his own words, and in the words of those who knew him. The letters are in chronological order, and include letters to and from Maxwell Perkins, Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, and Zelda Fitzgerald. To really get to know the man behind the words, this collection will do a lot to help you get to know him – how he felt about his career, his life, and the world.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters: A New Collection Edited and Annotated by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York, Scribner, 1995.
ISBN: 978-0684801537
F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Criticism by Kenneth Eugene Eble
With contributions by John W. Bicknell, Midge Decter, William E. Doherty, Kenneth Elbe, Donald Yates, Sy Kahn, Elizabeth Beckwith Mackie, Arthur Mizener, Michael Millgate, Sergio Perosa, J. Albert Robbinsm, this is a good collection of criticism that will prove helpful in your research.
Elbe, Kenneth. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Criticism. Mcgraw Hill, 1973
ISBN: 378-0070188570
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Lockridge, Ernest. Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Great Gatsby: A Collection of Critical Essays
This collection contains critical essays by many Fitzgerald enthusiasts, as well as “view points” by certain scholars, and a small collection of letters, including letters by Edith Wharton. Edited by Ernest Lockridge, this is a fine addition to your research tools if you’re studying The Great Gatsby in particular.
Lockridge, incidentally, retired from his literary scholarship life in 1991 and became a world-traveling, award-winning painter.
Lockrdige, Ernest. Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Great Gatsby: A Collection of Critical Essays. New York. Prentice Hall Trade, 1984.
ISBN: 978-0133638202
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