Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage

by Kendall Taylor

Irresistibly charming, recklessly brilliant, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald epitomized everything that was beautiful and damned about the Jazz Age. But behind the legend, there was a highly complex and competitive marriage–a union not of opposites but almost of twins who both inspired and tormented each other, and who were ultimately destroyed by their shared fantasies. Now in this frank, stylish, superbly written new book, Kendall Taylor tells the story of the Fitzgerald marriage as it has never been told before.

Following the success of Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise , Scott and Zelda took New York by storm. Scott was recognized as the greatest American author of the twenties and everyone was fascinated with Zelda, his ravishing young wife, known as the model for all his flapper heroines. Ultimately it all fell apart, and Kendall Taylor tells us why. Drawing on previously suppressed material, including crucial medical records, Taylor sheds fresh light on Zelda’s depths and mysteries–her rich but largely unrealized artistic talents, her own ambitions that were unfulfilled because she was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, her passionate love affairs. Zelda’s contribution to Scott’s fiction, which was based on her diaries, her letters, and her life, was her only great achievement–and for that she may have paid the terrible price of her own sanity.

In Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom , Kendall Taylor has created the definitive Fitzgerald biography. Written with sympathy, original insight, and dazzling style–and featuring memorable appearances from Edmund Wilson, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway, among others–this is a stunning portrait of a marriage, an age, and a fabulous but tragic woman.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Marriage, Adult

480 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2001

About the author

Kendall Taylor, Ph.D., is a cultural historian who has taught at George Washington University, The American University, and State University of New York. She also served as Head of the National Exhibitions Program at the Library of Congress, Academic Director of The American University’s Washington Semester Program in Art and Architecture, and Vice President for Planning, Research, and Institutional Advancement at Friends World College in Huntington, Long Island. A Fulbright scholar and winner of numerous awards, Taylor is the author of the critically acclaimed biography of the Fitzgeralds, Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom, which was published in 2001. She lives in New York and Florida.

Reviews

[Sandra Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Where to begin?

Let's start with Scott.

I personally never cared much for the writers of the Lost Generation. The two biggest luminaries - who hated each other - were Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was misogyny and ego on steroids (the closest he ever got to being a human as an author was "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," which is actually one of my favorite books of all time) in general.

Fitzgerald's writing always struck me as the thinking and perceptions of a wannabe (he never was comfortable in his own skin and was jealous of everyone and everything else).

It turns out that Scott's writing reflected exactly that and I didn't somehow miss its genius. He was jealous of everybody around him, and his wife, Zelda, it seems the most.

Scott was a raging alcoholic. As such he was a liar (at best, he told his version of truth, but it was never really the truth, just stories he spun to put him in the best light and make everyone else, including Zelda, the problem), he was a manipulator, he was mean, he was destructive, he was controlling, and he was the world's biggest jerk.

He destroyed Zelda piece by piece, and because I saw the reflection of every alcoholic I've ever known in everything he did and said, it hit home and hit hard for me. It made me angry and sad for Zelda. And it made me intensely dislike Scott (I hated his behavior, probably even more intensely because I've seen it up close and personally and I hate it when I have to deal with it - there is no defense and so I empathize with what Zelda went through).

Zelda was no angel and her choices and lack of good guidance from her parents contributed to the mess her life with Scott became. But she was intelligent - much more so than Scott - and she was strong, which he was not. She had insights, even in the depths of madness, that Scott simply wasn't capable of because he was more like Jay Gatsby - a pretender - than he would have ever admitted to being.

And she had a genetic predisposition to madness. I don't think she was ever diagnosed properly and she was subjected to the barbaric psychiatric treatments of the 1930's and 1940's, and those took most of what made Zelda Zelda, including her memory, away.

Zelda was Scott's muse, and he liberally - and without her knowledge or permission - used her diaries, letters, and life (often lifting entire sections of her writing and using them unedited) to create the lead female characters in his novels.

But when Zelda dared to express a desire to write herself, the alcoholic jealousy, rage, manipulation, and destructiveness that so characterized Scott's interaction with everybody, but especially Zelda, went into overdrive and Scott broke - intentionally - Zelda for good.

This is an incredibly objective, but sometimes gut-wrenching, look at the life of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their family and friends. It's not a happy ending for either one of them, and there's a lot of unhappiness all around their circle. It's not a feel-good book in any sense of the word, but it is well worth reading.

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taylor's biography of the mythical Fitzgerald couple is a fascinating read - although probably a biased one, and certainly not the last word on two extraordinary figures. The huge work she has undertaken (most of all, researches of all kinds that gives her book a spectacular scope) is admirable, and it helps in bringing vividly to life, from beginning to end, the tumultuous relationship of Scott and Zelda. Here are two complex persons that, for better and for worse, have become emblematic of their era, and Taylor does a great job in showing us what really was behind the myth - and what she shows is often tragic, pathetic, and heartbreaking. She obviously has a bias against Scott, and sometimes she lets that overtake her objectivity, but it's pretty clear that the writer was as destructive to himself as he was to his wife. Zelda comes out of this book as a poignant character, a fragile, extravagant, talented, original, flawed beauty, a bird desperate to fly but unable to to spread her wings. The pages about her illness are and fall from grace are infinitely sad, but Scott's demise is more sordid. Taylor makes some little mistakes (for example about Jean Harlow), misspells some names, fills sometimes pages with unnecessary information (we don't need the whole biographies of all the doctors that Zelda encountered), and she's also prone to repetitions, but still, her achievement is quite notable, and her book is a brilliant introduction to a doomed couple whose tortured love affair remains devastatingly incandescent.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic, if heartbreaking, look at the marriage of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. Too often, Zelda is given short shrift as being a sad, pathetic sufferer of mental illness, when she was in reality the key to Scott's success, and (unfortunately) the other half of his folie a deux.

The damage that Scott and Zelda did to each other, to their friends and families, and most of all, to their only daughter, is laid bare in this book, and so is their individual and combined genius. Highly recommended.

[Maurice Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book interesting. I had heard a lot about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, but was curious to learn more. Kendall Taylor provides much detail that helped me draw insight into their lives. Kendall provides the biographical dates: when they met, their successes, their failures, and when they died. Most biographies display the spin of the author, in Taylor’s case, a slightly feminist viewpoint, but Taylor provides enough detail for the reader to see beyond anyone’s opinions and draw an independent opinion.

I had long been aware that Fitzgerald and Zelda had a flamboyant, happy-go-lucky marriage that, somehow, went wrong, Zelda, somehow, losing her sanity. I never looked further into their lives until I saw a movie about Fitzgerald. Curious, I picked Taylor’s book from the library. I think anyone who wants enough facts to draw one’s own conclusions ought to read Taylor’s book.

Both Scott and Zelda were very talented and ambitious. Both wanted recognition. Scott got wide recognition with his novels, but his friend, Ernest Hemingway, soon rivaled his recognition. Zelda had opportunities, but hers were frustrated, partly because Scott did not support them. All three persons, Hemingway included experienced great sadness before they died. Saddest of all, I think, is the condition Zelda found herself in.

Taylor makes a good case that Scott incorporated Zelda’s writings and letters into some of his novels. Perhaps it was her words that gave life to those novels, her words that captured the soul of the Jazz and Flapper age. It appears that Scott smothered Zelda’s writing ambitions so as to have total access to her writing. Taylor relates that Scott believed Zelda was good with words but didn’t have the talent to construct a novel. Early in their marriage, Zelda and Scott were both offered leading roles for a movie based on his “This Side of Paradise. “ Scott turned it down. I see this as a blunder on Scott’s part. Zelda would have felt closer to Scott had they made the movie. Zelda and Scott would have both benefited if they had co-authored some of Scott’s novels. That way, they both would have found fulfillment, would have been much happier and less frustrated.

Zelda’s illness may have been hereditary, may have been unavoidable, but one wonders what effect the constant frustration and lost opportunities had on Zelda and how much she held her husband responsible. Scott died suddenly of a heart attack in 1936, still a young man in his forties, but broke, his career behind him, and bearing the unmistakable scars of alcoholism. Zelda was already in a hospital for mental disorders, undergoing shock treatments and other remedies felt effective at that time. She died, tragically in 1948, at age 47, when her hospital burned. Today, we have the legacy of their writing and the memory of their lives

Both spent their energies looking for fulfillment in the trendy ways of the liberated twenties, influenced by Freudian advice against frustrated sex, emboldened by alcohol made more attractive by prohibition, and pursuing an exciting, uninhibited, fun-filled life that, for a short while, was the envy of their friends. But life has a way of catching up with us, and new trends, no matter how attractive they seem, may not be in our own best interest.

The thought that occurred to me, when I finished the book, is how the two of them would view their lives today. Would they think it worth losing the closeness and love they might have had in order to pursue admiration and fame, which, even today, cannot heal their wounds. Seeing two lives in such intimate detail has a sobering effect. Surely, there is much more to life than fame and fortune. I wish Scott, Zelda, and their daughter, Scottie, peace, happiness, and genuine fulfillment of what it means to be human.

[Celene Swagler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the 2nd time I read this book. Very detailed, almost TOO detailed. It’s a little dry and I wish there were more pictures.

[Mari-Ann Vellerand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vahel hullus on tarkus, on ilus kokkuvõte nende kahe erilise kuid traagilise karakteri eludele. Mul on hea meel, et sain nendega paremini tuttavaks läbi selle raamatu ning elasin suuresti kaasa nende elu keerdkäikudele ja ameerika mägedele. Olles hiljuti lugenud “Sume on öö”, oli traagiline mõelda, et nii paljuski lõppes Scotti enda elu selliselt, nagu peategelasel.
Zelda elujõud ja -vaim, annab inspiratsooni olema autentne ja aus.
Raamat ise natuke venis ning sisaldas detaile, mis minule ei olnud olulised. Aga olen tänulik, et on inimesi kes pühenduvad teiste elude uurimisele, läbi mille saan ka mina osa nendest inimestest ja aegadest.

[Jess the Book Freak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes Madness is Wisdom explores the marriage of F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in depth. After reading this, it almost seems like their marriage was doomed right from the beginning because of the people they were and their own personal struggles intersected, further ruining their marriage. Nonetheless, they stayed together. This book has made me curious about Zelda Fitzgerald in particular, and I will be reading Save Me the Waltz by her. I can't help but feel sorry for them both. May they RIP.

[Chris Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with detail and extensive quotations from the writings of both Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, this book was a voyeur's tale of intrigue and felt like the unrepentant airing of a family's dirty laundry.

Kendall Taylor believes, with plenty of evidence to support her, that Zelda was a victim of Scott Fitzgerald's addictions and narcissism, and traces the ripples of that relationship through the struggles of their daughter and the strained relationships of their social and professional acquaintances.

I came away from this book with a desire to read other books by F. Scott Fitzgerrald, but fear the taint of this book's allegation that all of Fitzgerald's female characters were modelled in some way after Zelda and her coping strategies.

[Marialyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sad telling of two people who had they world at their fingertips and yet lost everything. This is one of those books that make you realize that oftentimes fact is so much better than fiction. I must say I consider F. Scott to have been a real cad and developed a more intense dislike as the story continued. It was his intense desire, coupled with copious amounts of liquor, to always be the one that counted more in this relationship. He just could not let Zelda possibly succeed on her own. Zelda, on the other hand tried as much as she could to find her own niche, but Scott just never let her have her own place. These two consumed each other. Did they love one another? I think they did as much as you love someone who can suck you dry. They roared through the twenties and left a very distinct impression on the American culture of that time. It is ever so sad that for two extremely talented people that liquor, sex, and the internal search for themselves left them at the end bereft of the very things life grants that are wonderful and meaningful.

[zespri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Having just finished "the Paris Wife' which was the story of the marriage of Hemingway and Hadley, I requested this book from our library to fill in a few more details of the era of 'the Lost Generation". This book explores the marriage of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, who were part of the artistic elite of the time.

This book has such a comprehensive bibliography that there is plenty more scope to quell my fascination, the author has researched thoroughly and provides so much interesting material that I could easily read the book again and be just as interested. There are wonderful quotes from the couples letters to each other, and quotes from their books, which all adds to the richness of this book.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to be honest. My inspiration for reading this one was a recent Woody Allen movie, "Midnight in Paris." I really wanted to read about the expatriates of the twenties, and I discovered this book and figured it would do. The moment I began I was captivated by the stories of Scott and Zelda. Admittedly, this is not the most uplifting book, but it seems well-researched and tells a wild and interesting tale.

[Taylor Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, a tragically flawed couple

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating dive into the dynamic between Zelda and Scott and how their lives shaped his writing and the Jazz Age at large.

If you idolize F. Scott Fitzgerald, this will challenge your views but I believe in a way that will add depth to who he actually was.

I appreciate the thorough review of their experiences and their interactions with other influential icons of the time but at times it was too detailed for someone not highly familiar with, nor trying to be, the era and early medical options for mental illness.

The only criticism is this book reads like an informative piece but is peppered with obvious personal biases for Zelda. Neither is wrong but this undercut any effort to be an unattached biography and left me challenging some of the author’s opinions because of her obvious bias.

In all, it’s a great read.

[BC Batcheshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I take the position that a book review on this site is to recommend a title or to promote its suitability for research.
I recommend this biography to anyone who has read F. Scott's stories, so they will have sufficient reminder that he had an uncredited co-author in his wife, Zelda.
Much of the biography is an argument in her favor, and overreaches in implication that Zelda was driven mad by Scott, so I would also advise that a reader overlook opinion and remind them to draw their own conclusions, freely.
There's no reason to agree with every assessment, but in studying Zelda's correspondence, cadence, and diction, a reader easily assesses that she directly contributed to Scott's literary body of work.
And that alone is reason enough to familiarize oneself with her person.

[Nicole C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to a 3.5, due to the repetitive nature of some of the writing.

I've read quite a bit on the Fitzgeralds by now, and this was a fairly solid one, with perhaps some new information (especially about their daughter, Scottie, who is now deceased, and I believe this might be the most recent one published after that).

It always bothers me how much Scott felt that Zelda's entire life was his, and his alone, from which to crib for his writings.

There is always the trope about the tragic fated lovers, but it is especially true for Scott and Zelda. They needed each other, despite destroying each other at the same time.

[Annika Lentso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Üks lugu kahe inimese geniaalsusest ja hullusest ning armastusest. Ja sõdadevahelisest ajastust, mil kõik oli võimalik ja kõike ka tehti. Pummelungidega alustati hommikul ning tihti viis selline eluviis hulluse, haiguste ja surmani. Hävitati elusid ja elati tänases päevas. Mõneti on kahju, et paljud teosed jäid seetõttu loomata, kuid ehk oli kõik see vajalik, et üleüldse luua?

Raamat on sümpaatses vormis - ei anna hinnangut ega ürita midagi ilustada. Aga inimeste elud on keerulised. Või nad elavad nad keeruliseks. Või mõlemat. Ja kui on antud annet ja ambitsiooni, siis võib juhtuda nii imesid, kui ka tragöödiat. Tihti korraga.

[James Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently finished reading Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage. Great book that highlights the era and marriage of these bold and tragic individuals who despite their character flaws and competitiveness, really loved one another to the bitter end. I learned so much about F. Scott Fitzgerald specifically how Zelda in what she said and did inspired many of the characters in the novels he wrote. Zelda's schizophrenia and F. Scott's alcoholism are explored and explained in detail as are the times in which these two lived. This is a great window into the roaring twenties and the jazz age.

[Lance Lumley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book on the author and his wife, which was filled with drinking, cheating , and mental illnesses. One part i enjoyed was early on when the writer talks about Scott and Zelda's honeymoon in New York and knowing Harvey Firestone, who created the tire company and is from my hometown, so seeing the local flavor for me was neat.
The book at times went a little slow, which is nothing against the writer, it was just your normal biography that moments I was just tired of reading.
The fact that The Great Gatsby was originally a failure , yet years later becomes one of the greatest books written was inspiring to frustrated authors/writer to take note of.
Overall, a good read.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped, based on the description, that Taylor would have new information not previously published or, at minimum, photos that hadn't been seen before. I find the Fitzgerald's lives so fascinating so was disappointed that it was all the same details. Either there is nothing new to write or there is yet to be discovered information about them.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livre très bien documenté, souvent un peu trop d’ailleurs et l’auteure se perd dans des détails, ce qui alourdit considérablement la lecture.
On passe vite sur leur vie pré conjugale (enfance notamment) et sur la famille de Scott, c’est dommage.
Néanmoins c’est une mine d’information. La psychose de Zelda y est très nettement décrite.

[dominika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe it may be the best (or at least one of them) biographies of Zelda and Scott. Although it is too detailed at times, e.g. includes lengthy notes about their friends, it also contains a deep analysis of the relationship of the famous Jazz era couple. What I also found interesting is the attempt to truly understand Zelda and her illness.

[Doreen Mallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read quite a bit of this book but not to the end. Maybe I'll take it up again. It has really not captured my interest at the current time. I have neither understanding nor empathy for this way of life and as literature I don't find the writing particularly compelling.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

good albeit quite biased

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Severley disappointed. It is like Kendall Taylor did not have an original thought in her head. She took bios of the Fitzgeralds and wrote a book! Did not even finish!

[Roxanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read. Sometimes the information was repetitive however interesting focus on Zelda and Scott as a couple and the ups and downs they shared.

[Sarah Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

What. A. Fascinating. Couple.

[T Hadar · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand the relationship of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, this book is an interesting read. I really enjoyed it, I love history of the Jazz Age.

[Zelmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald for most of my life. I have only read The Great Gatsby but I plan on reading his other novels. Besides the novels he wrote, what I find most interesting about him is his life and his marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald.
The story of their marriage continues to interest me.
After reading this book, I'm convinced that well he may have been a great writer, he wasn't always a great man or the best husband.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing more about F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, or their troubled marriage.

[MH · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched biography of the Fitzgeralds, Taylor stays close to their deeply unhappy personal lives (these Jazz Age icons had a few years where drink and mental instability were recklessly glamorous, and a few decades where it was a grinding tragedy) and ignores their cultural import for the details that can be mined from a mountain of letters, diaries, and reminiscences of friends and acquaintances. This book badly needed an editor - every minute Taylor spent in the archives is on the page, and we have biographical sketches of seemingly everyone in any of the Fitzgerald's social, literary, or psychiatric circles, along with histories of buildings they stayed in and European dance companies they may or may not have seen, and these digressions are rarely used to great effect. An editor also might have helped with some issues of repetition and contradiction, as well as a conclusion that admits "schizophrenia is now recognized as a disease of the brain" (371) - and then spends a few pages blaming Scott for Zelda's mental illness anyway. The frustrations of the writing don't quite overwhelm the fascinations of their terrible story, but I imagine a reader more familiar with the Fitzgeralds might feel very differently.

[Amanda McDougle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book during the summer of 2011, and I was shocked that F. Scott used Zelda's personal journal entries as his own writings. Before meeting F. Scott, Zelda was an eccentric person. Zelda embarked on athletic activities, plays, ballets, and dance. F. Scott, on the other hand, was a Princeton drop out. After marriage, the couple moved more times than any person does during an entire life. F. Scott describes the marriage as miserable and shields their child, Scotty, from her mother's mental illness.

In the end, F. Scott refuses to grant a divorce to Zelda, who is institionalized at the end. Zelda has experienced ECT treatments that disfigures her face. Her psychiatrist feels a divorce with F. Scott would be in the best interest of Zelda. As a man who has mistresses, F. Scott would have lost his stories and money from book sales. Zelda is miserable.

I learned that F. Scott Fitzgerald was not a noble honest writer. Until I read this biography, I highly enjoyed anything written by him.