READ THIS: A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY by F. Scott Fitzgerald edited by James L. W. West III WHOM YOU KNOW CELEBRATES OUR 400TH POST IN READ THIS WITH PEACHY DEEGAN'S FAVORITE AUTHOR, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD! Our Coverage Sponsored by The Peachy Deegan Cocktail!
Go to Swifty's, Sistina, San Pietro, Caravaggio, Brasserie Cognac, Geisha, La Mangeoire, Del Frisco's, La Mediterranee, McKeown's, Ammos, Madison Bistro, York Grill, Barolo, I Tre Merli and Hill Country to drink The Peachy Deegan with Star Vodka! Send us your pictures drinking The Peachy Deegan cocktail and also enter our new Star Vodka photography contest:
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Peachy Deegan was blessed to have Mover and Shaker Rennie McQuilkin for two years straight -tenth and eleventh grade- as an English teacher and he first introduced her to Fitzgerald through the short story, Winter Dreams. She did a term paper junior year on The Great Gatsby, and she has read that book over and over more than any other. We are absolutely thrilled to present A Short Autobiography by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by James L. W. West III especially since we never thought we'd be able to review a book by Fitzgerald as he was in a time before us! If you think you've read it all by Fitzgerald, think again because you haven't read this! Aside from her fantastic grandparents, there is no other person that Peachy Deegan would rather drink her cocktail with than F. Scott Fitzgerald, and perhaps he was born too early. An inspiration for his generation, generations since, this current generation and generations to come, F. Scott Fitzgerald is the epitome of what a writer should be and sets a worldwide standard for excellence that we all try to emulate and we all do admire. We're going to quote him tremendously in this review simply because no one does it better and we won't insult his memory by trying.
This treasure covers 1920-1940 which is of course the duration of Fitzgerald's professional career, and as it is autobiographical, we are even more enthused as our mission is to always get the inside story behind greatness everywhere, and there is no one greater than Fitzgerald. If you want to know who we are inspired by you should look no further-on page one the first chapter is titled: "Who's Who-and Why" and we quote an opening:
"...Two years later a family congress decided that the only way to force me to study was to send me to boarding school. This was a mistake. It took my mind off my writing. I decided to play football, to smoke, to go to college, to do all sorts of irrelevant things that had nothing to do with the real business of life, which, of course, was the proper mixture of description and dialogue in the short story." The history of Fitzgerald's life is one of complete fascination and for that reason alone you should read this, particularly since it is told by him.
"What I Think and Feel at 25" is more regalement highlighted by the quote on page 19:
"But as I do have to keep at it, I might as well declare that the chief thing I've learned so far is: If you don't know much-well, nobody else knows much more. And nobody knows half as much about your own interests as you know." Fitzgerald is an advocate of originality and being true to yourself and above all, getting things right. Of course, he led by example. His household expenses are interesting as they reflect his lifestyle.
"You see fiction is a trick of the mind and heart composed of as many separate emotions as a magician uses in executing a pass or a palm. When you've learned it, you forget it and leave it down here." (page 134)
Whom You Know gives
by
our highest recommendation. It is a priceless work that is a gift to all lovers of Fitzgerald everywhere. We would like to celebrate this 400th post additionally by jumping into the fountain in front of the Plaza with both Zelda & Scott if they ever come back...
This treasure covers 1920-1940 which is of course the duration of Fitzgerald's professional career, and as it is autobiographical, we are even more enthused as our mission is to always get the inside story behind greatness everywhere, and there is no one greater than Fitzgerald. If you want to know who we are inspired by you should look no further-on page one the first chapter is titled: "Who's Who-and Why" and we quote an opening:
"...Two years later a family congress decided that the only way to force me to study was to send me to boarding school. This was a mistake. It took my mind off my writing. I decided to play football, to smoke, to go to college, to do all sorts of irrelevant things that had nothing to do with the real business of life, which, of course, was the proper mixture of description and dialogue in the short story." The history of Fitzgerald's life is one of complete fascination and for that reason alone you should read this, particularly since it is told by him.
"What I Think and Feel at 25" is more regalement highlighted by the quote on page 19:
"But as I do have to keep at it, I might as well declare that the chief thing I've learned so far is: If you don't know much-well, nobody else knows much more. And nobody knows half as much about your own interests as you know." Fitzgerald is an advocate of originality and being true to yourself and above all, getting things right. Of course, he led by example. His household expenses are interesting as they reflect his lifestyle.
"You see fiction is a trick of the mind and heart composed of as many separate emotions as a magician uses in executing a pass or a palm. When you've learned it, you forget it and leave it down here." (page 134)
Whom You Know gives
A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
F. Scott Fitzgerald
compiled and edited by James L. W. West III
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F. Scott Fitzgerald—one of our most important American writers—died before he was able to write a memoir. He had proposed a collection of his personal essays to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons, twice during the last decade of his life—once in 1934 and again in 1936—but Perkins refused to publish them on both occasions. Now, compiled and edited by James L. W. West III, A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Scribner; On-Sale August 2, 2011) collects nineteen of Fitzgerald’s most important personal essays and articles, finally revealing the author in his own words.
A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY covers Fitzgerald’s entire literary career, beginning with “Who’s Who—and Why” (1920), written shortly after This Side of Paradise had made him famous, and ending with “My Generation” (1940), a look back at the times through which he had lived and the people who had shaped his era. Fitzgerald writes about topics as varied as living on a budget (or failing to) and cocktails in New York and on the Riviera, to his deeply personal account of the Lost Generation. The collection charts Fitzgerald’s progression from exuberance and cockiness in “What I Think and Feel at 25” to mature reflection in “One Hundred False Starts” and “The Death of My Father.”
Witty and wise, this revealing collection of personal essays and articles compiled and edited by Professor James West offers a rare glimpse into the life and mind of a beloved American writer and provides an intriguing self portrait of a great American literary artist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, attended Princeton University, and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre and the couple divided their time among New York, Paris, and the Riviera, becoming a part of the American expatriate circle that included Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos. Fitzgerald was a major new literary voice, and his masterpieces include The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of forty-four, while working on The Love of the Last Tycoon. For his sharp social insight and breathtaking lyricism, Fitzgerald stands out as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century.
ABOUT THE EDITOR:
James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. He is the current president of the Society for Textual Scholarship. He is a biographer, literary historian, and scholarly editor. His most recent two books are William Styron: A Life (1998) and The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King (2005), both published by Random House. West has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has held Fulbright appointments at Cambridge University in England and at the Université de Liège in Belgium, and he has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. West is at work on a revised edition of the Styron biography and on an edition of Styron's fiction about the Marine Corps, to be published this fall by Random House under the title The Suicide Run.
TITLE: A Short Autobiography / AUTHOR: F. Scott Fitzgerald / PUBLICATION DATE: August 2, 2011 / ISBN: 978-1-4391-9906-0 PRICE: $15.00 paperback
ABOUT SCRIBNER
Scribner is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., part of the CBS Corporation. Simon & Schuster is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic and multi-media formats. Its divisions include the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.
