Everybody Was So Young (65 page)

[>] “specialized in Anglo-Saxons”: GCM/CT interview,
HMD
.

“for me only the invented”: GCM/CT interview notes,
HMD
.

“He talked thoughtfully . . . undiscovered gold”:
GCM
to
SWM
, undated letter, quoted by
GCM
in a letter to CT, 12 Apr. 1962,
HMD
.

“very painful”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 9 Jun. 1937,
PUL
.

[>] “were the only other Americans . . . contralto”: Tender Is the Night pencil ms. 2, “The Melarkey Case,”
PUL
.

“Gerald’s Irishness”:
FSF
, The Notebooks ofF. Scott Fitzgerald, p. 149.

“Seth is quite amusing . . . who was with him”: Tender Is the Night pencil ms. 2, “The Melarkey Case,”
PUL
.

[>] “I don’t kiss people . . . hard woman”: Ibid. The line “I’m a hard woman” appears in Nicole’s dialogue in the published version of Tender Is the Night:

“‘I’m a mean, hard woman,’ she explained to Rosemary” (p. 21).

“You thought I was”: Callaghan, That Summer in Paris, p. 207. Callaghan and the bisexual Robert McAlmon had each recently been challenged to write stories about two homosexuals for This Quarter—Callaghan’s entry, entitled “Now That Apr.’s Here,” dealt with a gay man leaving his lover for a woman—and this commission may have made Fitzgerald oversensitive.

[>] “The novel should”: Fitzgerald papers,
PUL
.

18. “The geodetic points of our lost topography”

[>] “The orderliness”:
GCM
to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931,
LOC
.

Gerald and Sara decided . . . sell Villa America: Ibid.

[>] They had given Léger . . . another collector: The panels, entitled Queues de comets sur fond noir, were painted “pour la Villa de Gérald Murphy à Antibes” in 1930, and are listed as number 750 in Georges Bauquier’s catalogue raisonné of Léger’s work.

“In spite of thunder” . . . Mediterranean coast:
GCM
to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931,
LOC
.

He soon seemed improved . . . Baoth to Venice:
HMD
diary 1931,
HMD
.

[>] The cook, Frau July . . . rolling countryside: Ibid.

struck by the regulated . . . “dominates everything”: Léger, Lettres à Simone, p. 18.

“Absolutely terrified . . . at the idea”: Milford, Zelda, pp. 188–89 and 190.

“great . . . that you all”:
GCM
to
FSF
, [summer 1931],
PUL
.

“Scotty + the little Murphys”:
FSF
to
ALM
, [ca. summer 1931], Myers papers.

[>] Shortly after the Fitzgeralds’ . . . Miss Stewart:
HMD
diary 1931,
HMD
.

“She was terribly . . . just typical”: S&G, p. 60.

“My God”:
GCM
to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931,
LOC
.

they took Honoria . . . for the first time:
HMD
diary 1931,
HMD
.

They also brought Fernand Léger . . . “delighted him”:
GCM
, MacAgy/Murphy papers; Léger, Lettres à Simone, p. 29.

[>] Countess Lieven . . . daughter Fanny:
HMD
diary 1931,
HMD
.

“gorgeous . . . Madame Bovary dress”:
ESB
interview.

“She used Helena Rubinstein” . . . fur piece:
HMD
interview.

In the end . . . ruinously expensive:
GCM
to AMacL, 4 Feb. 1932,
LOC
.

[>] Neither of his surviving . . . Senator Robert F. Wagner: “Many Pay Tribute to P. F. Murphy,” unattributed, undated newspaper clipping,
GCM
papers,
HMD
.

“my father left a company”:
GCM
, quoted in S&G, p. 45.

“take care of Esther”:
HMD
interview.

“He cannot be . . . kill us for their sport”:
GCM
, undated notes on Europa stationery;
HMD
.
GCM
also quotes many of the same lines in his 8 Jan. 1932 letter to AMacL.

[>] “a paradise”:
GCM
to AMacL, 4 Feb. 1932,
LOC
.

Sara made a ceremony . . . for a month:
HMD
diary 1932–35: Mar. and Apr. 1932,
HMD
.

“A thing of great”:
GCM
to AMacL, 4 Feb. 1932,
LOC
.

The galley had . . . water to fill it: AMacL to EH, 31 May 1933,
JFK
.

[>] “poor little Pook . . . sickness!”:
GCM
to AMacL, 8 Jan. 1932,
LOC
.

[>] visits from the Barrys . . . Concurrence:
REM
diary: 29 Mar. 1932;
ALM
to
REM
, [May 1932]; Myers papers.

“he kisses me”: Jeanne Leger’s postscript to FL’s letter to
SWM
, 18 Jun. 1932,
HMD
.

“Put away my house”:
HMD
diary 1932–35: 5 Jul. 1932,
HMD
.

“the era”: S&G, p. 51.

“Some day we’ll all”:
GCM
to AMacL, 4 Feb 1932,
LOC
.

“lost [her] shirt”: Mary Hoyt Wiborg to
SWM
, 6 Dec. 1929,
HMD
.

had invested heavily . . . deed to it: S&G, p. 69.

[>] Now, however, she owed . . . an additional $1,: All details and quotations from
SWM
handwritten affidavit, 10 Aug. 1942, prepared for presentation in Wiborg v. Murphy,
HMD
.

[>] John and Katy . . . frequent guest on weekends:
HMD
diary 1932–35,
HMD
. “adore[d] it . . . arranging their lives”:
GCM
to AMacL, 8 Sept. 1932,
LOC
.

[>] “performed well for Ernest”: S&G, pp. 67–68.

“lovely trails . . . moon cocktails”:
SWM
to EH and PH, 29 Jul. [1936],
JFK
.

It was the custom . . . three hours: Carlos Baker, notes from interview with Olive Nordquist, Carlos Baker/Hemingway papers,
PUL
.

“good for her”:
HMD
interview.

“tasteless, without variety . . . no longer respects”:
GCM
to AMacL, 8 Sept. 1932,
LOC
.

[>] Sara and Gerald dropped him . . . train from New York:
SWM
travel and residence affidavit; notes for Wiborg v. Murphy,
HMD
.

Baoth and Patrick and Honoria . . . horse-drawn sleigh: Murphy home movies,
HMD
.

Ada and Sara cooked . . . liqueurs:
GCM
to AMacL, 8 Sept. 1932,
LOC
.

“restor[ed] a few”: AMacL to John Peale Bishop, [ca. Apr. 1933], Letters of Archibald MacLeish, p. 256.

“nasty mean operation . . . agonies”:
REM
to
ALM
, 9 Feb. and 20 Feb. 1933,
FMB
.

[>] “rather rickety”:
GCM
to
JDP
, 9 Mar. 1933,
UVA
.

He and Sara wrote . . . more if need be:
REM
to
ALM
, [Feb. 1933],
FMB
.

“a chip of a little legacy”:
GCM
to
JDP
, 9 Mar. 1933,
UVA
.

he and Gerald were thinking . . . one of them: Ibid. There is no further record of any attempts to produce these works, so it must be assumed their discussions came to nothing.

Archie MacLeish had been approached . . . basis of his score: AMacL, Reflections, p. 93.

[>] “white Russian crook”: Donaldson, Archibald MacLeish, p. 236.

Sara Murphy, Hoytie Wiborg . . . Esther Murphy Strachey: AMacL correspondence with Alice de la Mar, Mrs. Harrison Williams, and Sol Hurok, Union Pacific file, Ballets Russes archives, DC/
NYPL
.

In March . . . Virgil Thomson:
REM
diary: 12 Mar. 1934,
FMB
.

distinguished himself . . . immediately afterward:
GCM
to CT, 4 Sept. 1960,
HMD
.

“What carried that ballet . . . Gerald’s music”: AMacL, Reflections, p. 94.

Nor were Sara . . . first night’s proceeds: Correspondence in Union Pacific file, Ballets Russes archives, DC/
NYPL
.

“Archie has hurt . . . can change that”:
ALM
to
RLM
, Jun. 1934,
FMB
.

“He’s a pretty lonely . . . knows it now”: AMacL to H. Phelps Putnam, [Jun. 1934], Letters of Archibald MacLeish, pp. 266–68.

[>] The weather in Key West was bad: EH to
GCM
, 27 Apr. 1934,
HMD
.

fishing with the Dosses . . . stared down at them: PH to
SWM
, 17 May 1934,
HMD
.

“It was lovely . . . I think”: EH to
GCM
, 27 Apr. 1934,
HMD
.

“Dearest Sara . . . sea-sick”: EH to
SWM
, 27 Apr. 1934,
HMD
.

more than twenty-five . . . without indignation: See “Prologue,” pp. 1–2.

[>] “Scotts book, I’m sorry”: EH to
GCM
, 27 Apr. 1934,
HMD
.

“I liked it . . . if it were true”: EH to
FSF
, 28 May 1934, Emest Hemingway: Selected Letters, p. 407.

dark, swashbuckling man . . . “adventurers in the movies”: Many years later Gerald told Calvin Tomkins that Tommy Barban was based on Mario (Tunti) Braggiotti, a pianist who, with his partner Jacques Frey, had a popular concert career in the 1930s and 1940s. Fitzgerald himself said that Barban had elements of Tommy Hitchcock, the society polo player—but, as Ernest pointed out, the characters in Tender Is the Night are composites.

[>] “Dear Scott”:
SWM
to
FSF
, [spring 1934],
PUL
.

She had been getting . . . her own correspondence: Milford, Zelda, pp. 284–86.

“Jazz Age Priestess . . . audience for background”: Ibid., pp. 291–92.

[>] Sara paid $200 . . . Cary Ross took in: Cary Ross to
FSF
, 4 May 1934, Correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 359–60.

“Those monstrous . . . morbid”: Milford, Zelda, p. 290.

[>] “I am going . . . their garden has conveyed”: Zelda Fitzgerald to
FSF
, Milford, Zelda, p. 290.

Mediterranean Midi . . . lifetime ago: Mediterranean Midi is pictured on p. 75 of Zelda, An Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald, edited by Eleanor Lanahan; the caption says it “probably dates from the 1940s”; but the caption also says it is “suggestive of Capri where Zelda in 1925 is reported to have taken her earliest painting lesson.” Neither assignment is definitive; equally persuasive are the visual references in the painting to the Murphys’ garden and linden tree, and (of course) the title.

[>] “I had the pleasure . . . expensive rugs”: John O’Hara to EH, [spring 1934], Selected Letters of John O’Hara; see also Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 234.

“
THIS
IS TO REPORT”: DP to
GCM
and
SWM
, 8 Jun. 1934,
HMD
.

[>] “
YOU
WILL
NOT
HAVE”: Mary Hoyt Wiborg to
SWM
, 8 Jun. 1934,
HMD
.

19. “We try to be like what you want us to be”

[>] flag Gerald designed . . . Picasso so admired:
GCM
, MacAgy/Murphy papers.

“260 kilometres . . . (or so blue)”:
SWM
and
GCM
to PH and EH; 21 Jun. 1934,
JFK
.

[>] bringing prints of Ballet mécanique . . . to screen: Léger, Lettres à Simone, p. 114.

“A Sara à Gerald”: FL, Weatherbird sketchbook,
HMD
.

“small checks”: FL to
GCM
, Mar. 1934,
HMD
.

Gerald . . . take home as presents: S&G, p. 83.

One evening . . . “if you stand tall”:
FMB
interview.

[>] “Children . . . rechute”: S&G, p. 83.

Honoria came to visit . . . practically transparent:
HMD
interview.

“Isn’t it horrid? . . . some more words”:
SWM
to EH and PH, 18 Sept. 1934,
JFK
.

“the doctors have told”: Esther Murphey Strachey to Muriel Draper, 17 Apr. 1935, Muriel Draper papers, Beinecke Library.

“either a Grants Gazelle . . . each others backs”: EH to
GCM
and
SWM
, 30 Sept. 1934,
HMD
.

[>] “I thought as I carried”: AMacL to
PFM
II, 26 Oct. 1934,
HMD
.

[>] “I didn’t know one thing”:
GCM
, quoted in S&G, p. 78.

He hired Tomi Parzinger . . . “Leather”:
FMB
interview.

“spend[ing] all his time”:
JDP
to EH, [23 Jul. 1935], The Fourteenth Chronicle, p. 479.

‘“Trade . . . harmful but efficient”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 31 Dec. 1935,
PUL
.

He told a friend . . . sleepwalking: LW, p. 125; CT interview.

[>] “to the value . . . God awful expenses”: EH to
GCM
and
SWM
, 16 Nov. [1934],
HMD
.

“
YOUR
RECORDS
SHIPPED”:
GCM
and
SWM
to EH, 21 Nov. 1934,
JFK
.

“turned into various things”:
JDP
to
GCM
, 11 Jan. [1935], HMD; Miller, Letters from the Lost Generation, p. 106.

Murphys proposed to rent . . . Mark Cross permitted:
KDP
to
SWM
, 12 Jan. 1935,
UVA
.

“Welcome Home, Baoth”: S&G, p. 86.

[>] “Dos and Ernest”:
KDP
to
SWM
, [Feb. 1935], UVA; Miller, Letters from the Lost Generation, p. 112.