The Great Gatsby.

FITZGERALD, F. Scott.

$250,000.00

Item Number: 135650

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.

Octavo, original dark green cloth with gilt titles to the spine. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “With the Pleasant memories of La Paix behind me alas and alack! Souvenir of 1932–1933 for M.T. from her – at least from one who was almost made to feel like – a guest. F. Scott Fitzgerald.” The recipient, Margaret Turnbull, who with her husband Bayard owned La Paix, a 28–acre estate with a large Victorian house near Towson, Maryland. The Fitzgeralds rented La Paix from the Turnbulls in 1932 and 1933 because of its proximity to the Phipps Clinic, the psychiatric branch of Johns Hopkins, where Zelda was being treated. This is also where Fitzgerald finished work on his second masterpiece, Tender is the Night. The Turnbulls lived nearby in another house on the estate; while Bayard Turnbull disapproved of Fitzgerald, his wife Martha shared an interest in literature with him and became a good friend of him. According to her son, at their first dinner together “Fitzgerald grew heated on the subject of Thomas Wolfe and left the table to get his copy of ‘Look Homeward, Angel’, which he insisted my mother take with her and read at once… Out of such treads their friendship was woven. Each time they met here was a carry–over from the previous meeting – something to discuss that seemed of vital importance… He was constantly lending my mother books: Proust, D.H. Lawrence, Hemingway, Rilke, the diary of Otto Braun… My mother became for a brief season a listener to and therefore a sharer of his thoughts” (Turnbull, Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 221–240). It was Margaret Turnbull who introduced Fitzgerald to T.S. Eliot when the poet was staying with her family while lecturing at Johns Hopkins on the Metaphysical Poets. Bruccoli A11.1.b; Connolly, The Modern Movement 48. In near fine condition with the spine gilt exceptionally bright. First edition, second printing with “sickantired” on page 205, most inscribed copies are second printings. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional association, most rare and desirable.

In 1922, Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Cyril Connolly called The Great Gatsby one of the half dozen best American novels: "Gatsby remains a prose poem of delight and sadness which has by now introduced two generations to the romance of America, as Huckleberry Finn and Leaves of Grass introduced those before it" (Modern Movement 48). Consistently gaining popularity after World War II, the novel became an important part of American high school curricula. Today it is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel". In 1998, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century's best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period. It was the basis for numerous stage and film adaptations. Gatsby had four film adaptations, with two exceptionally big-budget versions: the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, as well as Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 version starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carrie Mulligan. Fitzgerald’s granddaughter praised Lurhmann’s adaptation, stating “Scott would be proud.” Second printing, with “echolalia” on p. 60, “northern” for “southern” on p. 119, “sickantired” on p. 205, and “Union Street station” for “Union Station” on p. 211.