F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise
Note: NY1920.com previously focused on Fitzgerald, and in more depth, in the February 20 guest post by Kirk Curnutt, linked here.
One hundred years ago today … This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald’s first novel, arrived.
Facsimile of First edition (1920) This Side of Paradise dustjacket. Facsimile Dustjackets LLC. Cover Art by William Hill.
Black-and-white photographic portrait of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Circa 1920. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. WikiCommons.
The first printing of 3,000 copies sold out in three days (Bruccoli, 202) and the press took note; the Tribune would report that Fitzgerald was the youngest novelist whose work had been published by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
New York Tribune, 4 April, 1920, p. 76.
Fitzgerald’s financial success persuaded the family of Zelda Sayre of Montgomery, Alabama, to approve of the pair’s plans to marry.