Born and raised in St. Paul, F. Scott Fitzgerald became the literary voice of his generation. "A Short Autobiography" isn't exactly an autobiography, but is instead a compilation (assembled by Fitzgerald scholar James L.W. West) of 19 articles by the "Great Gatsby" author written between 1920 and 1940. They give us a clear glimpse into Fitzgerald's character and his development as a writer, and, most important, offer valuable insights into the themes that would dominate Fitzgerald's fiction.
Fittingly, the first piece opens in Fitzgerald's native St. Paul in the years before World War I ("Who's Who -- and Why"). Even as a child, Fitzgerald immersed himself in language: "When I lived in St. Paul and was about twelve," he writes, "I wrote all through every class in school in the back of my geography book." Fitzgerald finished writing his first published novel, "This Side of Paradise," after he "went home to St. Paul ... to write."
In these early pieces, published when Fitzgerald was in his 20s and celebrated as the voice of his generation, readers can almost feel his self-confidence and studied nonchalance. In "What I Think and Feel at 25," Fitzgerald provocatively contends that he has nothing to learn from others: "The chief thing I've learned so far is: If you don't know much -- well, nobody else knows much more." His determination to blaze his own trail echoed a wider generational backlash against the tragic "waste" of World War I and the enforced morality of Prohibition.
In two amusingly carefree essays, Fitzgerald writes of how he threw away much of his newly earned wealth and then fled to France with his family to save money. As he says of leaving New York, "We felt we had escaped -- from extravagance," but (of course) his cost-reduction plans failed miserably. He spent as much in "low-cost" France as he did in the USA: "Exactly where the money went, we don't know -- we never do."
Later essays show a more mature Fitzgerald. With his literary star descending and his confidence frayed, Fitzgerald's prose becomes stronger, more self-reflective. He combined his trademark lyricism with a growing, empathic awareness of loss. "Afternoon of an Author," written a few years before his death, shows Fitzgerald struggling with creativity, making false starts and wrestling with doubts about his talent. These doubts deepened him as a writer, both stylistically and thematically. As he says of his younger self, "he had had an early weakness for showing off instead of listening and observing."
Chuck Leddy is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
