Zelda (67 page)

   105 Paris was, as Sara said…: Calvin Tomkins, “Living Well Is the Best Revenge,”
The New Yorker
, July 28, 1962, p. 50.

   106 Sara Murphy said…: Sara Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963.

   106 “The train bore them down through the pink…”:
SMTW
, p. 72.

   106 In June they came to St. Raphaël…:
Afternoon of an Author
, p. 111.

   106 “Zelda must have spent days…”: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   107 That summer the air of the Riviera…: Mrs. Robert Benchley to NM, interview, March 3, 1965.

   107 She wrote, “Oh, we are going to be so happy…”:
SMTW
, p. 79.

   107 “After all, Scott had his writing…”: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   107 Yet the days were monotonous for her…:
SMTW
, p. 80.

   107 Zelda wrote Edmund Wilson:…: ZSF to Edmund Wilson ca. summer 1924.

   108 Casually at first, Zelda and one of the young aviators…: Admiral Edouard Jozan to NM, January 11, 1967.
CU
, p. 44.

   108 Edouard Jozan cannot remember any longer how he first met…: Admiral Edouard Jozan to NM, January 11, 1967.

   109 In 1940 he commanded a naval…: M. Georges Poull to NM, December 3, 1966. It is M. Poull who suggested to me that the name “Josanne” (the name mentioned in Fitzgerald’s Ledger) was perhaps a misspelling of Jozan—as indeed my subsequent correspondence with Admiral Jozan proved.

   109 When Zelda described him in
Save Me…
:
SMTW
, p. 83.

   109 Zelda called her young officer Jacques Chevre-Feuille…: SMTW, pp. 82–83, 89.

   110 Sara Murphy thought that Zelda…: Sara Murphy to ZSF, interview, March 2, 1964.

   110 Then, abruptly, Zelda and Jozan were no longer…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964. Ledger, p. 178.

   110 There was not a hint of discord…: Gilbert Seldes to NM, interview. May 27, 1965.

   110 Joseph Conrad had died in England…:
Gatsby
, The Modern Library, New York, 1934, p. viii.

   111 “The road from their villa…”: Gilbert Seldes to NM, interview, May 27. 1965.

   111 In August Scott wrote…: Ledger, p. 178.

   111 At about three or four one morning…: Calvin Tomkins to NM, January 4, 1966.

   112 It was not until much later in his life…: Notebooks, I, “Ideas.”

   112 In September he wrote…: Ledger, p. 179.

   112 “But they both had a need of drama…”: Admiral Edouard Jozan to NM, February 17, 1967.

   112 In
Save Me the Waltz
, Alabama says…:
SMTW
, p. 98.

   112 He told Maxwell Perkins…:
Letters
, pp. 165, 166.

   113 In November Scott entered in his Ledger…: Ledger, p. 179.

   113 He worried about the title…:
Letters, p.
169.

   113 She read aloud to him…:
Letters
, pp. 170, 173.

   113 Scott wrote,…:
Letters, p.
357.

   113 That spring in Paris was composed…: Ledger, p. 179.

   113 The previous fall, Fitzgerald, upon reading…:
Letters, p.
167.

   114 Hemingway’s first wife. Hadley…: Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer to NM, interview, July 25, 1964.

   115 Hemingway perceptively noticed two kinds of jealousy…: Ernest Hemingway,
A Moveable Feast
, pp. 180–181.

   115 Hadley feels that Zelda “was…”: Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer to NM, interview, July 25, 1964.

   115 When Scott had finished it he had written…:
Letters, p.
357.

   
115 He told Perkins…:
Letters
, pp. 180–181.

   116 Then Gilbert Seldes reviewed it…: Gilbert Seldes, “Spring Flight,”
The Dial
, No. 79, August, 1925, p. 162.

   116 In May Gertrude Stein wrote…:
CU
, p. 308 (Gertrude Stein to FSF, May 22, 1925).

   116 Eliot wrote him…:
CU
, p. 310 (T. S. Eliot to FSF, December 31, 1925).

   116 Neither Zelda nor Hadley was included…: Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer to NM, interview, July 25, 1964.

   116 In an anecdote which has become a part of the Fitzgerald-Hemingway canon…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963.

   117 “At that time,”…:
Ibid.

   117 She said: “The portrait of Zelda…”: Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer to NM, interview, July 25, 1964.

   117 They returned to the South of France…:
CU
, p. 19.

   117 The Fitzgeralds joined the Murphys one evening for dinner…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963.

   118 Several years later, writing about the scene…:
CU
, p. 58.

   118 “You see,” Gerald Murphy commented…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   118 In September Scott summarized the year…: Ledger, p. 180.

   118 She wrote: “We had a play on…”:
CU
, p. 46.

   118 “That the Fitzgeralds are the best looking…”: John Chapin Mosher, “That Sad Young Man,”
The New Yorker
, April 17, 1926, pp. 20–21.

   119 “Any place that Sara touched…”: Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer to NM, interview, July 25, 1964.

   119 Scott wrote: “The mistral is raging…”:
Letters
, pp. 203–204.

   120 Zelda was not seen during the day…: Mrs. Archibald MacLeish to NM, interview, March II, 1965.

   120 In a film taken during the summer…: I would like to thank Gwinn Owens for arranging for me to see a special screening in Baltimore of his film about Scott Fitzgerald called
Marked for Glory.
Let me also thank John Q. of Station WJZ-TV 13 in Baltimore.

   120 One evening the Murphys and the Fitzgeralds were sitting…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963.

   120 Mrs. MacLeish remembers…: Mrs. Archibald MacLeish to NM, interview, March 11, 1965.

   121 Gerald Murphy described the way Scott and Zelda seemed to work together…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   121 Prior to the operation, however, Zelda had suffered…: In Rome, the year before, Zelda had had a minor operation to enable her to become pregnant. An infection set in and she was ill throughout the following year. Her doctor in Paris did an abdominal operation but no gynecological condition was found and her appendix was removed. Later in her life she would refer to her illness as peritonitis.

   121 She was having drinks one afternoon…: Sara Mayfield, “The Fitzgeralds: Exiles from Paradise,”
Comment
, The University of Alabama Review, Vol. IV, Winter 1965, p. 45.

   122 Miss Mayfield remembers a specific conversation…:
Ibid.

   123 “I think that was the time I told him…”: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, April 26, 1963.

   123 Sara added: “She never, never spoke personally—”…: Sara Murphy to NM, interview, March 2. 1964.

   123 Still, she was absolutely loyal…:
Ibid.

   125 Zelda had been ill throughout the year…: Ledger, pp. 179–181.

   125 “God,” he wrote Perkins…:
Letters
, p. 207.

   125 Zelda was quoted in a newspaper…: This clipping is in her scrapbook.

   126 Years later Zelda realized that for herself…:
CT
, Chapter V, p. 39.

Chapter 9

   127 “It is so hot here we can’t wear coats…”: ZSF to Scottie, n.d.

All of the letters from Zelda to her daughter quoted in this chapter were undated and were written during the eight weeks Zelda and Scott were in Hollywood. Most of them were written on the letterhead of the Ambassador Hotel.

   129 The seventeen-year-old screen star was…: George Jean Nathan, “Memories of Fitzgerald, Lewis and Dreiser,”
Esquire
, October 1958, pp. 148–149.

   129 In the story the girl’s youth is seen as a shield…: “Jacob’s Ladder,”
Saturday Evening Post
, August 1927, p. 5.

   129 “Silently, as the night hours went by…”:
Ibid.
, p. 63.

   130 Samuel Goldwyn gave a costume party…: Colleen Moore,
Silent Star
, Double-day, New York, 1968.

   131 It was through the assistance of Scott’s old friend…: Judge John Biggs, Jr., to NM, interview, June 9, 1963.

   131 Before Scott left Europe…:
Letters
, p. 207. 131 Zelda later evoked the archaic charm…:
CU
, p. 47.

   131 Zelda cleverly had outsized furniture…: Mrs. Anna Biggs to NM, interview, June 9, 1963.

   131 Zelda must have concealed…: Mrs. Clarence M. Young to NM, May 14, 1965.

   132 The first, “The Changing Beauty…” “The Changing Beauty of Park Avenue,”
Harper’s Bazaar
, January, 1928, p. 60. See the Ledger. ZSF received $300 for this story, $300 for “Looking Back Eight Years,” which was sold to
College Humor
, and $180 for “Who Can Fall in Love After Thirty?”
College Humor
, October, 1928. “Editorial Photoplay,” was apparently sold for $500, but it appears to have been unpublished and I have not been able to locate the manuscript.

   132 Zelda’s second article was called…: “Looking Back Eight Years,”
College Humor
, June 1928, pp. 36–37.

   133 “…surely some of this irony…”:
Ibid.

   133 Soon Scott and Zelda were throwing…: John Dos Passos to NM, interview, October 17, 1963.

   133 Edmund Wilson once remarked…: Edmund Wilson, “Weekend at Ellerslie,”
The Shores of Light, A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties
, Farrar, Strauss and Young, New York, 1952, p. 382.

   133 During those first several months at Ellerslie…: ZSF to Carl Van Vechten, May 27, May 29, June 9, June 14, June 24, September 6, October 14,1927.

   135 At the beginning of summer Sara Murphy wrote…: Sara Murphy to ZSF, June 28, 1927.

   136 “One of the objects that caught her fancy…”: Mrs. Anna Biggs to NM, interview, June 9, 1963.

   136 Her husband added that he had heard…: Judge John Biggs, Jr., to NM, interview, June 9, 1963.

   136 Scott met her train, explaining that Zelda…: Mrs. John Hume Taylor to NM, August 10, 1965.

   136 “Scott seemed to be the moving spirit…”:
Ibid.

   137 “She talked intensely when she was interested…”: Mrs. John Hume Taylor to NM, September 29, 1965.

   137 After the party Scott and Zelda and Cecilia…:
Ibid.

   138 Angoff remembers that Scott had been drinking…: Charles Angoff,
H. L. Mencken: A Portrait from Memory
, Thomas Yoseloff, Inc., New York, 1956, pp. 98–99.

   139 “Have got nervous as hell …”:
Letters
, p. 301.

   139 Scott wrote: “The book is fine…”:
Ibid.
, pp. 300–301.

   139 Later, according to Matthew Bruccoli…: Bruccoli,
The Composition of Tender Is the Night
, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1963, p. 18.

   140 “They were on their way…”:
SMTW
, p. 98.

   
140 Zelda wrote to Eleanor Browder, who had recently married…: ZSF to Mrs. E. E. Addison, postmarked May 29, 1928.

   140 Gerald Murphy introduced Zelda to Madame Lubov Egorova…: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   141 “It seemed to Alabama that, reaching…”;
SMTW
, p. 124.

   141 “Zelda wanted immediate success…”: Gerald Murphy to NM, interview, March 2, 1964.

   142 “Each time someone was brought to be introduced…”: Sara Murphy told me this anecdote in the spring of 1963; she had also passed it on to Calvin Tomkins, who quoted her in his perceptive
New Yorker
profile of the Murphys. Although I interviewed many of Zelda’s childhood friends, I was never able to discover the meaning of “the marble ring.”

   142 Zelda later recalled “long conversations…”:
CU
, pp. 48–49.

   142 His entry for July in the Ledger read…: Ledger, p. 182.

   142 When they returned to America…:
Ibid.

   142 She practiced in front of the great ornate…: Judge John Biggs, Jr., to NM, interview, June 9, 1963.

   143 “And there was the lone and lovely child…” ZSF, “Autobiographical Sketch,” March 16, 1932.

   143
Scott
wrote Maxwell Perkins…;
Letters
, p. 213.

Chapter 10

   147 Zelda said: “I worked constantly…”: ZSF, “Autobiographical Sketch,” March 16, 1932.

   148 Morley Callaghan, a young Canadian writer…: Morley Callaghan,
That Summer in Paris
, Coward-McCann, New York, 1963. See Chapters XI, and XVIII.

   148 At their first meeting…: Callaghan,
Ibid.
, p. 152.

   149 The next time they met, Callaghan remembers, Zelda…:
Ibid.
, pp. 160–163.

   149 In the winter of 1928–1929 Zelda began writing the first in a series of short stories
^*
…: These stories are: “The Original Follies Girl” (sold March 1929),
College Humor
, July 1929, $400. “The Poor Working Girl” (sold April 1929),
College Humor
, January 1931, $500. From the date of sale it seems pretty dear that this was the second story to be written, but it was the last to be published in the series. A note in Scott’s Ledger says, erroneously, that it was unpublished. “Southern Girl”
College Humor
, October 1929, $500. “The Girl the Prince Liked” (sold September 1929),
College Humor
, February 1930, $500. “The Girl with Talent” (sold October 1929),
College Humor
, April 1930, $800. “A Millionaire’s Girl” (sold March 1930),
Saturday Evening Post
, May 17, 1930, $4,000.

   150 Most of the stories, he told Ober…: FSF to Harold Ober, n.d.

   150 A wire from New York assured him…: “
MILLIONAIRES GIRL CAN SELL POST FOUR THOUSAND WITHOUT ZELDAS NAME CABLE CONFIRMATION
,” March 12, 1930.