F. Scott Fitzgerald - A Troubled Life Cut Short | Documentary
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2023
- Now regarded as one of the most important voices in American literature, F Scott Fitzgerald died in obscurity, ignored and largely forgotten. The glitzy lifestyle of endless parties, cocktails and everyone wanting to be his friend a distant memory.
In the nineteen twenties, he and his high-spirited wife Zelda, were the living embodiments of the Jazz Age - handsome, successful and buzzing with energy - but like the Jazz Age their lifestyle was unsustainable.
In this video, I explore the brilliant but all too short life of F Scott Fitzgerald. A burdened life, fatally intertwined with that of the artistic but troubled Zelda. I reveal how the lives of two of America’s brightest young things slowly unraveled, with Zelda in and out of mental hospitals and Scott drowning his sorrows with alcohol.
It is a sad story of two lives prematurely extinguished, but also a story about love, about how their love endured through all the temptations and troubles that fate put in their paths.
Finding Out More:
There are many individual biographies of F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre/Fitztgerald, some blame Zelda for Scott’s downfall, others blame Scott’s drinking for Zelda’s mental illness. The joint biography Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage: Sometimes Madness is Wisdom by Kendall Taylor explores their lives together. But the book I found the most enjoyable and revealing was Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald I have added this and some of the other biographies to my Amazon store page if you are interested: www.amazon.com/shop/professor...
F Scott Fitzgerald - a Troubled Life, Cut Short | Documentary
Academic References;
Bruccoli, MJ (2002) Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (2nd rev. ed.), Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.
Goodwin, D. W. (1970). The Alcoholism of F. Scott Fitzgerald. JAMA, 212(1), 86-90.
Esteve, N., and Huertas, R. (2018). Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and psychoanalysis: The construction of Tender Is the Night (1934). Culture and History Digital Journal, 7(1). Irwin, J. M. (1987). F. Scott Fitzgerald's little drinking problem. The American Scholar. 56 (3), 415-427.
Mizener, A (1951) The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
Seeman, MV (2016) Gendering psychosis: the illness of Zelda Fitzgerald. Med Humanities, 42: 65-69.
Wood, ME (1992) A Wizard Cultivator: Zelda Fitzgerald's Save Me the Waltz as Asylum Autobiography. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 11 (2), 223-264.
Copyright Disclaimer:
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.
Images:
Wikimedia Commons
Princeton University Library
Music:
Scott Joplin - The Entertainer - User.IE (public domain)
Scott Joplin - Gladiolus Rag - Pathé Dance Orchestra (public domain)
Scott Joplin - March Majestic (public domain)
Scott Joplin - Solace - performed by Constantin Stephan. CC4.0
Original Dixieland Jazz Band - Livery Stable Blues (1917, public domain)
Jazz Clarinet - Serolillo - CC2.5
Jazz Trombone - Serolillo - CC2.5
Sweet Georgia Brown - Dixieland Band of the United States Army Field Band's Jazz Ambassadors (public domain)
Scott Joplin - Ragtime Betty - João Pedro Cunha, violin, Pedro Carlos Silva, piano. CC3.0
Cinus Laurent - Etude n°6 Free Art Licence
Vladan Kuzmanović - Concert for Half Piano in E Flat Major CC4.0
Jonathon Little - Sacred Prelude, Op.1, for string quintet. Soloists of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra CC3.0
Lloyd Rogers Slow - CC0
Carl Reinecke - Wind Octet Op. 216 - 3. Adagio - Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet: Felix Skowronek, flute; Laila Storch, oboe; Clarinets: William McColl and Julie Oster, Horns: Christopher Leuba and David Cottrell, Bassoons: Arthur Grossman and Gary Claunch. CC2.0
Sergei Rachmaninov - Vocalise -Roxana Pavel Goldstein, violin and Monica Pavel piano CC2.0
Sergei Rachmaninov - Concerto No 2 for Piano and Orchestra in C minor. Pianist. Kuneu (Ku Hanho) Piano, Citi Philharmonic Orchestra. CC Reuse Allowed.
Sergei Rachmaninov - Prelude in B Minor, Op. 32, No. 10, performed by La Pianista. CC3.0
Claude Debussy - Deuxième Arabesque - Patrizia Prati. CC 4.0
Claude Debussy - Rêverie - David Hernando Vitores CC4.0
Video produced by Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.
My father, my older brothers (most of them) were alcoholics. Two of the bunch were very mean drunks.
I got caught up in drinking after a time of great sadness and anxiety...but was delivered...by the grace of God.
My dad was a bad alcoholic. Hes been dead fifty years yet the pain and chaos he caused live still today.
Sadly, alcoholism is often very destructive to anyone close.
Same here love, almost 60 years.
@@professorgraemeyorston
AWA
Both my parents were alcoholics. It took me about 50 years to truly understand alcoholism is a medical disease. At age 73 I am finally able to forgive them, to love them, and to appreciate the few years of great parenting i received in the 10 years before they succumbed. They were truly good, loving people before the fall.
@@davidtrindle6473 My father had trauma from losing his brother to an accidental shooting at 15. My mother witnessed her brother runover when he was 6 just twomonrhs after their fathers neck was broken. Talk about some trauma there. So they both had issues for surs.
As an alcoholic who was able to quit I can understand his dilemma. Very unfortunate that he never quit and was able to get proper treatment. I think there’s much better understanding now and better treatment.
F Scott did quit, 7 years before his heart attack. He wrote about it in his story "The Crack Up"
Dispite a less-than-ideal childhood, Fitzgerald was the Golden Boy of the 1920s - a literary success at a young age, handsome, talented, financially solvent, married to the woman he loved... for someone as sensitive and perceptive as Fitzgerald it's amazing to me that he didn't or couldn't see the destructiveness of his marriage and his own alcoholism.... personally, I'll save my pity and sorrow at a life cut short for John Keats, a budding poet at 18 and dead of TB at 25 years of age, deeply saddened that he and his poems would be forgotten. Fitzgerald burned himself out at 44.
Excellent video.
Thank you, it is hard to feel sympathy for those who are self-destructive.
Wow, I never knew just how much his personal life was directly reflected in his novels.
It's almost autobiography at times.
How refreshing to have access to a well-researched documentary that is delivered without being overbearing or patronising. A truly moving story which has prompted me to undertake further research. Many thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@professorgraemeyorston
Being a writer, I have a deep affection for writers creative and sometimes tortured Souls. TFS a fine documentary !
Amazing, thank you.
The Great Gatsby , one of the best novels ever written .
I would say the best!!!
The best or up there with the best.
Tender is the night is my favorite book. So I was glad to hear you say that Fitzgerald considered it his masterpiece.
Great talent is often born of deep sadness . What made Fitzgerald as intuitive is the fact that he was familiar with human emotions and the anguish of unpleasant experiences having experienced some of them first hand. That is what makes his writing brilliant. Thank you for this video. I enjoyed listening to it.
Thank you.
Sadness does not create talent. It simply gives an author material. to write about. Untalented people suffer as well, without the ability to write about it.
The Great Gatsby immediately became my favorite book after reading it in high school, and it holds up today. Fitzgerald is a master, and his works are classic Americana.
It is mine, as well. He’s also my favorite writer.
Same here. I take it out every 3 years or so for an enriching re-read. I find it perfect.
Gracefully delivered and free from execration: clearly, the life of Scott Fitzgerald was as fantastic as it was tragic.
Thank you.
Impressive biography. You portrayed the life of Fitzgerald in a beautiful and deeply meaningful way. As a reader who regards The Great Gatsby one of the best works of American literature I appreciated and was moved by your creation.
Thank you.
Thank you, it is always a nice day when you post another video! Alcoholism, such a devastating illness…
Thank you, it always seems such a waste when someone's life is cut short by alcohol.
Not an 'illness" !! You're just a drunk !!!!! Thanks to pc, it's just too hard and too honest to call a spade a spade !!!!!
Yes it is!!
Sadly, many men during the Great Depression became alcoholics! Including my great grandfather. My grandmother explained they had everything, new cars, new home, beautiful silk dresses and it seemed to her that it was all gone! But she did say he was never mean to anyone and eventually built them a new home. He worked for the Newman Lumber Company as a supervisor. The company traveled all over different states cutting virgin timber.
@@professorgraemeyorstonI lost my sister to the affects from alcoholism. It is horrible to watch and no amount of begging her to quit mattered to her. I miss her so much, as do my brothers and sister. I hope that she’s at peace now, and with my mom and dad.
Love the channel. A UA-camr who is knowledgeable, educational and an expert in his field. Thank you.
Thank you, I appreciate that!
Two narcissists who devoured each other.
@@annettepora8091Say what? What do you mean by your comment?
I knew the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and had read all his books, but I loved this version as it included the romance of his life.
An eminent production. Deeply researched. Succinctly written. Authoritatively yet pleasantly delivered. Kudos to the creator!
Amazing 👏
Definitely, thank you.❤
Such a sad story, beautifully and sensitively researched and narrated. Thank you. Fitzgerald's prose and its record of an extraordinary era in US history are remarkable. But as someone who has seen the harm done by alcoholism close up, I can only wince at the level of co-dependency shown by this tragic pair.
I have two friends who have this kind of marital relationship. So sad. It's like watching a train wreck... and it has gone on now for almost three decades. Unfortunately, little mental health help is available for the poor in the United States - as mental health treatment, like healthcare in general, must take a backseat to profit. And it doesn't help that their own problems and lack of desire to take action adds to, and worsens, their situation. It's been a long, downward, spiralling dance of crises.
I'm surprised he and Zelda lived past 30..
Shame, they brought on so much suffering to their lives..😥😥
Zelda didn't 'bring on her suffering into her life'. She has brain problems that grew worse after her 20s.
Even though it's just short lines in Scott's letters, I could see how to be sincere with one's heart, with one's language. I wrote them down in my own notebook, because Scott's lines were just so impressionistic to me. Thanks for the video.
He certainly knew how to write!
All that the world has to offer when it is not enough! This was a very good biopic.
Thank you.
So sad he was forgotten when he died After all these years Gatsby still sparkles
He wasn't in the wilderness for long and I think his work says a lot about power and desire and greed.
He wasn't forgotten. That's simply wrong. Those who read and loved writers and literature certainly knew who he was. My father was 25 when Fitzgerald died and loved his writing.
What a well thought out portrayal of both Fitzgeralds. Imagine all the books he could have written as a non drinker. He obviously didn't write good stories as an alcoholic so that myth is dead. Great narration. Very well done. I subscribed because I liked this story.
Welcome aboard.
A very engaging review of Fitzgerald’s life. As you’ve stated, it’s obvious that Zelda is a huge part of his story. Glad you’ll be dedicating a separate video to her.
Thank you.
That's like saying Jesus is obviously a big part of God's story lol
Found this gem today, a combination of two of my greatest interests; literature and psychiatry! I used to read 'everything' about Vivien Leighs mental illness when I was young and when I compare the treatments today it's painful to imagine how she suffered, even though she had a strong spirit. Looking forward to the video about Zelda. Thank you very much for creating this channel.
My pleasure, hopefully Zelda will be out soon.
Everyone would enjoy the movie Gone With The Winds, to learn about Vivian Leigh’s talent.
@@marthathacker7365”You can lose your mind but you can never lose your soul.” -Paramhansa Yogananda -
An amazing, but sad biography of his life. A sad ending. Lessons of life learned the hard way
Wow I didn't know he died so young. He sure had a life he did.. Very nice documentary thank you
This was brilliantly put. Thank you so much. As a professor of English literature myself, this feels like a perfect introduction for young students who embark on the journey of exploring the works of Fitzgerald.
Wow, thank you! High praise indeed.
Excellent biographical narrative . Thank you !
Glad you enjoyed it!
This showed up in my feed and it didn't disappoint. What a fabulous porttyal of his life and love story.
I will definitely seek out the video on Zelda,as I worked in psych for many years. The old treatment gets some bad press,but based on the beauty of the architecture of these homes I can see the treatment model they were going for. The houses were absolutely gorgeous and in serene settings. It's not easy staying so committed to a marriage with someone suffering from schizophrenia,his commitment to her is applaudable. I do see how she may have been his creative muse. Ive met many talented folks with schizophrenia and in the right environment they could flourish with writing or painting.
It's a shame he couldn't get sober and see the day where his works were appreciated once again. I will definitely read their love letters book. I sure miss the days when we used to write heartfelt letters
Thank you. Because of the bad things that happened in some hospitals, the whole mental health care system gets tarnished and people forget that asylums were built as uplifting and calm places for people to recover.
Gone are those good old days when Sylvia Plath could recuperate at a nice bucolic asylum.🤔
An enjoyable, coherent documentary of an incoherent life -or a pair of lives- the story of which somehow outpaces the sum of the writer's work. With Fitzgerald, you're just left wondering how the h3ll could someone live like that and manage to accomplish anything. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Wonderful video on the lives of F. Scott & Zelda. Their daughter must’ve been deeply traumatized by the two of them.
She came through it all and was able to to lead a stable and happy life.
I knew nothing of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life, so this was a wonderful introduction! Thank you so much. Appreciate your hard work!
Scott Fitzgerald was the first “serious” author I read - many years ago when I was a freshman in high school. To this day, he holds a special place in my pantheon of great writers. “Tender is the Night” is the best of his novels in my humble opinion.
He thought it was his masterpiece.
Thank you. What a beautiful portrait of creative yet tortured life. A true telling of the life of talented and gifted people. I heard and saw myself too often in the telling.
An absolutely amazing presentation on Fitzgerald and Zelda. Loved every bit of it. Highly informative.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I learned way more than I expected about one of the great writers. Thank you.
I’m not sure he can be classed as one of the ‘greatest writers’. Known mainly for one book.
As an American I've had an interest in the Jazz Age era and have read a fair amount of the Fitzgerald's lives and times. I appreciate your research and ability to cover so much and present it so well. Many thanks!
My pleasure, thank you.
‘I wouldn’t care if she died, but I couldn’t stand to have anybody else marry her.’ What a guy.
I suspect that was bravado to his Princeton pals, I think he loved her.
@@professorgraemeyorston I believe he loved her too.
Typical of NPD
@@caroleminke6116NPD was rampant with all of them!
I've read all about Scott and Zelda. Their story interested me since my mom had schizophrenia. Such tragedy and self indulgence all around. Your presentation was so compassionate. Great watching. ❤️
Thank you.
Thank you for this wonderful story. Still brings tears to my eyes whenever his sad life comes to my attention. I love your voice and certainly look forward to following you.
An excellent portrait, and so well produced. Loved the images as much as the excellent narration. As a dedicated Fitzgerald fan, I feel you have got him fair to rights.
I think a lot of his work is quite repetitive but given his lifestyle it's a miracle he was able to produce anything, so fair play to the man.
Like his fellow contemporary master fictionists Hemingway, Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis and Thomas Wolfe, Fitzgerald did have core vital personal and American archetypal themes and characters he wanted fully and definitively to express; and so his artistic perfectionism drove him to rework, expand and evolve many such motifs in followup works. So yes, there is repetition, but it is "variations on a theme" as in other arts such as music and painting, e.g., Van Gogh's many iterations of "The Potato Eaters."
F. Scott Fitzgerald is the best.
Thanks for this. F. Scott is my fave writer. I read the unfinished The Last Tycoon, the depth of his characters, of the story blew me away.
Thank you, I didn't get Fitzgerald when I was younger, I think you need to have lived a bit to understand his characters.
Wonderful, nuanced and compassionate look at the best American response to the European grand literary tradition of the 'lost generations' or lost exquisite souls ... I love Fitzgerald's world in all his tragic beauty - but Tender is the night always struck me as a most devastating self-diagnosis of the 'two made one' couple ... Thank you for a very detailed research, as I read a lot about SF, Zelda, their life etc and still found some new revelations here.
Thank you.
I found this extremely fascinating biography and can’t wait to see your biography on Zelda. Especially enjoy your perspectives on the history of psychiatry and psychology.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Where is the history of physiology and psychiatry.p.
@@professorgraemeyorstonAs a therapist…well done!
is there a Zelda biography? I was enthralled with her as a teenager.
Wow had no idea they had such tormented lives. Sounds like a movie waiting to be made. Great video.
Z The beginning of Everything was originally conceived as several seasons to cover Zelda's life, but it was axed after season 1.
I have heard it was American World War II military personnel who were responsible for F Scott Fitzgerald's popular renaissance. Solders were given paperbacks of novels by publishers to help them pass time while away fighting the war. Fitzgerald's work, particularly "The Great Gatsby" struck a cord with many. Gatsby's popularity coincided with the end of the war.
Quite true. American GIs were given inexpensive, poorly made copies of books that were out of print, which included Fitzgerald's books. But they read them. It was an expression of concern and gratitude by the War Department that did so much, not only for a lonely soldier, but for American literary criticism that still endures.
@@tombrown1898 Excellent points, thank you for commenting on my comment. I didn't know it was out of print books which were sent out. I wonder if Hemingway's' books were sent to our boys, too?
That's not true the great g never sold big untill the 50s in his time it was a very small susess
@@Michael-ty6tm "In the spring of 1942, mere months after the United States' entrance into World War II, an association of publishing executives created the Council on Books in Wartime with the stated purpose of distributing paperback Armed Services Editions books to combat troops. The Great Gatsby was one of them. Within the next several years, 155,000 copies of Gatsby were distributed to U.S. soldiers overseas and the book proved popular among beleaguered troops, according to the Saturday Evening Post's 1945 report.
By 1944, a full-scale Fitzgerald revival had occurred".
Cole, John Y., ed. (1984). Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8444-0466-0. Retrieved May 22, 2013
@@tombrown1898 May be the birth of paperback "pocket" books, lightweight and small enough to fit into one's pocket and/or backpack. My WW2 US Army medic in Europe father emerged a fan of both Fitzgerald and Hemingway, in his free time (apart from his chemical engineer day job, then in retirement) spent decades happily writing (on an old Remington typewriter) novels (per Hemingway's prescript, "n" thousand words a day), short stories and a few nonfiction pieces. I majored in English and American literature, love both Fitzgerald's and Hemingway's fiction, and Fitzgerald's self-diagnostic nonfiction essay "The Crackup."
Beautifully done -- a sensitive and thoughtful analysis of two very complicated people.
Thank you kindly!
What a nicely done portrait of the life of this talented, brilliant, accomplished, wasteful, sad, tragic man. Thank you.
Thank you.
I loved this you are a brilliant storyteller.thank you
Thank you so much!
Such an excellent documentary! I have been a Fitzgerald fan since my first reading of, "The Great Gatsby" in high school 40 years ago. I am sure that I have seen everything there is to see on Fitzgerald on youtube as I am always being notified of new videos. This one is by far the best. The very short video of Scott and Zelda in the South of France is something that I have never seen. You pose good questions, the "what ifs," at the end. The music compliments the video. Very, very good! Thank you for making it!
Fascinating discussion, Dr. Yorston, and beautifully and sensitively authored.
I was delighted with this video and I look forward to more! It has always been one of my favorite quotes, Zelda asking F Scott to please help her and he replying, "darling, how can I help you when I can not even help myself?"
Thank you. Good quote!
Thank you for taking the time to share this very well detailed documentary ❤
I love this! My favorite writer in my youth. I’ve read everything he wrote.
Im a huge fan of Scott Fitzgerald and his writing. This video is very comprehensive. Thank you for posting!
Thank you.
You so beautifully transported me back into the wonderful but crazy lives of the Fitzgerald'. Thank you.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing is truly exquisite, and what an eidetic memory he had. While reading “This Side of Paradise” I was gobsmacked to discover there are supernatural elements in the novel!! One of the finest writers anywhere and of any age. His work never leaves you, lingering long after you’ve finished the last page. Zelda was equally as gifted, especially with respect to her artwork. Loved this documentary; will watch again! Thank you!!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Have you seen my video devoted to Zelda?
The short story Babylon Revisited is the best thing he wrote I think, full of regret for wasted years
Very well done! Thank you! God bless both F. Scott and Zelda forever as one!
Thank you, and what a nice thought - I hope they're not bickering!
A sad story well-told. And a great production. Thank you for the comprehensive references, music listings and notes too!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really like Zelda's paintings.
Me too, I think she had real talent as a painter.
Thank you for your videos! I love learning history! I’m a Christian and as I watch the heart ache of mankind. My thoughts are how much humanity needs God to help them make better choices for their lives. God bless.
This was excellent! I loved the miniseries and too bad HBO didnt do a wrap up film on thier lives after Gatsby..thank you for doing this!👏👏👏
Just read “The Great Gatsby”. A very great book. Complex and brilliant.
This was very well done. One great novel, and his life is forever remembered.
thank you for this story....a time machine trip into the past....well done...
Thank you.
Excellent! Thank you! All Best, Darren Angelo
Thank you too!
The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel. Its portrayal of heartless selfishness sears the soul.
It's a great book.
I live around the corner from the Montgomery home...its a beautiful neighborhood ❤❤❤❤
It looks wonderful from the pictures I've seen.
Beautifully done. One of my favorite authors, along with Hemingway! Thank you for sharing his story. My favorite is The Great Gatsby...
As an FSF fan for decades, who has read everything he ever published (often many times) and a lot that he never published, I think you did a great job here. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks for sharing! 😊
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this truly incredibly recount and I have learned so much. I bow my head down to this great man, for what he endured and for his incredible personal strength to stand up and keep going in the face of absolute total obstacle followed by obstacle. He had to find superman strength and he didn't thank himself for even owning it. I'm in awe of him. thank you
Thank you very truly for composing this video. Much of Fitzgerald's class experience has been mine but a thousand miles south of East Egg.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A really good podcast. The Great Gatsby is one of the finest novels ever written and rightly is included in most top 100 lists ever published, none of his other novels come near, imo
Alcohol can be so destructive to many of us, drugs get all the attention while booze gets a pass.
I agree, the dangers of alcohol are not taken seriously enough.
Yes very interesting story about him and thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it
Best Fitzgerald documentary I have ever seen. How about a documentary on Dashiell Hammett?
Interesting suggestion, thanks.
What a wonderful time you’ve given me tonight! Thank you, Professor.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you very much for this literary, personal and creative adventure. You have brought out so many tangents, aspects, and touching elements experienced by both F. Scott and Zelda, that whatever I thought I knew from before, you now reminded me of just how hard things became over time, and, the heroic work F. Scott did, though drinking enough to sink a sub,trying to pay off all his debts. How tough this had to have been! And to see, after some time, that F. Scott died at forty-four, and Zelda shortly after, reminds me of the swiftness of life, of work one loves, and of the limits of our lives which sometimes we pretend aren't real. Perhaps this comment now, that intensity might have been the zenith of their lives and which made their lives most meaningful, sounds like something a twit might say, but I wonder. (We shall never know.) Thank you.
I was living new orleans in 1994 and got this place with a friend of a friend named Emily fairy, from Broklyn. she told a story about her grandmother, Shelia Graham. how fitzgerald had died next to fireplace in her house in la.
Small world.
Thank you an excellent telling of their lives. So sad that schizophrenia was not treated very much better than other in Van Gogh’s sad lifetime: sad also that so many human beings with genius live such heartbreakingly sad lives, seeming to be failures … But F Scott was not a failure in life. He truly loved Zelda, that must have provided comfort to a degree. And he loved their daughter. Thank you again. I look forward to your writing of Zeldas life also.
Thank you, I changed my views rather after researching Zelda's life.
A girl I used to know (sorry to quote from More Than A Feeling, couldn't help it) once told me that her favorite novel was The Great Gatsby. I was somewhat fixated on Hemingway at the time, and it wasn't until she left me that I realized that it was also one of *my* favorite novels. I could not have been more stupid. My only consolation is that she's with a much, much better man than me.
"I knew I would never be so happy again." What an amazing quote. This guy was the goods, he was the real deal.
Thank you for this wonderful documentary. Loved your comments and thoughts on your opinion of the couple. Very insightful and thought provoking . Yes it was a deep love affair running the gamut of all emotions. They were soulmates thru thick and thin.
Wow! What a story! Tragic in ways. With two very unstable parents I wonder how Scottie faired? Thank you so much.
She did ok, she got married, had children and lived to 64 working as a journalist.
Fared. Not faired.
I shamefully write that I have not read his books, and only saw years ago the film version of The Great Gatsby. However, their is a quote that has been assign to F. Scott Fitzgerald that is this Show me a hero, and I will write a tragedy. Perhaps I may have the quote not just right, but I have quoted it many times in my later years. It is true, and seems fitting for it to be applied to Mr. Fitzgerald. I do hope his literary works will be studied on college campuses, and his works to remain in print. It is the least we can do for one of our own. ❤
I have a wonderful f Scott story.My aunt told me this.I never met my grandpa on my dad's side because he died before I was born.So my grandfather lived in Bridgeport,CT but worked for the parks department in Westport CT.Every morning he would see f Scott start his day on the beach called compo .He would see him setting up his chair,his notebook,pens papers and bottle of whatever he was drinking,as my grandpa drove off in his park truck . Well I like to imagine he was writing the great Gatsby or some of his short stories as he enjoyed the beach and his cocktails.According to my aunt Betsy more than once as my grandpa pulled in compo beach at the end of the day, he would have to pull f Scott out of the water because as he drank and wrote the tide had come in.My grandpa may have been part of the reason we were able to enjoy the genius of Mr Fitzgerald.What would have happened if Robert Marshall had not pulled F Scott Fitzgerald out of the tide almost every afternoon? Thanks grandpa!!!
Fantastic story, thank you, and yes, thanks too to your grandpa.
Glad you enjoyed it, professor!!
Wonderfully portrayed and narrated, thank you. It was fascinating to look at the true photos of Fitzgerald Zelda and Scottie throughout their lives, truly captivating plus the film captions of that actual era. The only only thing that took away all the nostalgic authenticity was every now and again a photo would pop up that was not of the era, ie.. the pregnant woman the wedding couple shown holding hands, lots of various others. These 'new' unidentifiable photos weren't needed because the reader had already created there own version of what it would look like in their own imagination. Just my opinion, hopefully not taken as a complaint as I really was captivated right from the start.
Thank you. It is always difficult to know how much stock footage to include.
Thank you for giving Zelda the creative credit she truly deserves Her writing was superior to his and you can see how much he uses her diaries 😅
My video focussing on Zelda's life should be finished soon.
Best I've seen on this couple. Balanced, unbiased, yet warm and humanizing.
Thank you, excellent! I've listened to this episode 3 times already, to capture as many details of information as possible, because it's abundant on it. Learning about any important author's life, changes the optics we use when reading their work. It adds significant perspectives. Thank you very much, sir.
I agree, I am thinking about writers and artists differently after having strated this channel.
Visuals, not optics.
@veritas6335 Here are some synonyms and equivalences, that can be used instead of optics, for your better visual:
Imagery, perspective, view, viewpoint, perceptions, image, opinion, apparence.
That said, have a good day.
Thanks for this episode. Fitsgerald is one of those authors one had to endure at university. This biography would have helped a whole generation, like mine, to understand the complex author. True that he captures a slice of the life not exclusive to Americans. The whole world always watches them for clues on how to 'have fun' while living. How lost we once were. Glad we survived the great Gatsby.
Thank you. I didn't like the Great Gatsby when I read it in my 20s, but enjoyed it much more when I re-read it.
Gatsby is absolutely lyrical. It's beautiful writing, regardless of what you think of the story. You had to "endure" it? Then you have no business even commenting here. You are ignorant of literary prowess and the magic of the English language when crafted by a literary genius. .
Well done documentary. Life runs in cycles. The Jazz Age was like the Sixties, with self-absorption, reinventing the wheel, and lack of a moral compass brought about by a lack of discipline. You touched on it when you didn't buy into the artist" excuse. I mean, look at J.S. Bach. When you let people of weak character take charge only chaos can ensue. Look at the US today for example.
Thank you.
@@pbb-ln4ni There are always some out there, albeit not as many. It is the crushing non-thinking politically correct woke agenda. It is crushing the spirit of freedom and inquiry. It was the same in the Soviet Union and is the same in China. People are conditioned and can't think for themselves. They let the media do it for them. Vulgar, lewd, and outrage is all you get.
Literature is a metaphor of life, said a professor to me at Lehigh University in 1991 during our conversation about world literature. I never heard this idea before and never after, but it illuminated my mind as a shining gem of our cumulative literary heritage. For it is through a singe metaphor, like fate, karma, odyssey, that we manage to comprehend and somehow come to terms with the overwhelming complexity of our human experience. Thank you professor for giving us a fresh and fair portrait of Scott and Zelda’s trying journey through their lives.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Super. A pleasure to watch until the end. ❤ Johannesburg.
Glad you enjoyed it!
It is what it is, (an) artist(s) still being talked about today. Wasted moments, though being creative isn’t just an industrial printing press. Drug use and abuse is a distraction to many artists.
A distraction, and yet there's no guarantee he would have written anything without the drink.
@@professorgraemeyorston / Possibly. 🥃
The man wrote The Great American Novel. It's a shame his life was such a torment.
I wonder how his writing would have evolved if he had lived another 20 years.
@@professorgraemeyorston Edmund Wilson wrote that Fitzgerald was reinvigorated in his work on The Last Tycoon. He wrote either to Wilson or in a journal words to this effect: This is the thing I should have been doing all along ( instead, I suppose, of living so irresponsibly in the 1920s ). I've read what of The Last Tycoon Fitzgerald had written at the time of his death, and agree with Wilson, who appears to have thought it would have been as good as The Great Gatsby.
Thank you for this brilliant program. You are very gifted.
At 77, I never read his books but was aware of the wealth that surrounded him. As a grateful member of Al-Anon Family Groups, for family & friends of alcoholics, I know well that Alcoholics Anonymous saved thousands all over the world from this devastating disease. Not everyone finds sobriety in their rooms though, each must want it most desperately.
Thank you.
Hello Professor. I recently came across your channel and had the opportunity to listen to a couple of your biographies; Vincent van Gogh and F Scott Fitzgerald.
I just wanted to express my appreciation on how well they are crafted.
I’m looking forward to more, so keep up the great work! Bravo!!
Thank you, welcome aboard and I'm glad you're enjoying them.