Description: This volume of commissioned essays explores topics concerning the historical context of Fitzgerald's writings. Its topics include the literary marketplace of the 1920s and 1930s, the influence of public figures such as Walter Lippmann and H. L. Mencken, the mass market, film and its treatment of the "New Woman," and the aftermath of World War I.
Review Quotes: "Restores Fitzgerald to his literary, intellectual, and cultural contexts.... Delightfully jargon-free and fulfilling its brief to provide an interdisciplinary and historically sensitive context for Fitzgerald's work, the collection also contains much perceptive close reading of the novels and stories.... Curnutt's own rather dazzling contribution to the collection explores Fitzgerald's ambiguous attitude towards consumerism.... A superb illustrated chronology and bibliographical essay completes a worthy volume."--Times Literary Supplement
"A collection of valuable resources and new essays by some of the most distinguished scholars in Fitzgerald studies.... There are clearly many rewards to be found in A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The essays are compelling.... It is an important and useful volume for students and scholars of Fitzgerald and his work."--The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review"A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald will prove useful for academics, graduate students, and even undergraduates engaged in learning more about the Jazz Age America that inspired Fitzgerald's fiction. In particular, the volume's brief biography and illustrated chronology will serve as valuable teaching tools in an undergraduate survey, in which historical context is often sacrificed for broader literary coverage. Curnutt and his contributors have provided excellent examples of how combining literary studies, history, and cultural studies can produce vibrant images and important insights into a world almost forgotten."--Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association