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The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love
In The Perfect Hour, biographer James L. W. West III reveals the never-before told story of the romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his first love, Ginevra King. They met in January 1915, when Scott was nineteen, a Princeton student, and sixteen-year-old Ginevra, socially poised and confident, was a sophomore at Westover School. Their romance flourished in heartfelt letters and quickly ran its course–but Scott never forgot it. Ginevra became the inspiration for Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise and the model for Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Scott also wrote short stories inspired by her–including “Babes in the Woods” and “Winter Dreams,” which, along with Ginevra’s own story featuring Scott are reprinted in this volume. With access to Ginevra’s personal diary, love letters, photographs, and Scott’s own scrapbook, West tells the beguiling story of youthful passion that shaped Scott Fitzgerald’s life as a writer.
For Scott and Ginevra, “the perfect hour” was private code for a fleeting time they almost shared and then yearned after for the rest of their lives. Now West brings that perfect hour back to life in all its freshness, delicacy, and poignant brevity.
For Scott and Ginevra, “the perfect hour” was private code for a fleeting time they almost shared and then yearned after for the rest of their lives. Now West brings that perfect hour back to life in all its freshness, delicacy, and poignant brevity.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
James L.W. West III
65 books9 followersJames L. W. West III, a native of Virginia, is Sparks Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. West is a book historian, scholarly editor, and biographer. He has written books on F. Scott Fitzgerald and on the history of professional authorship in America and has held fellowships from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. West has had Fulbright appointments in England (at Cambridge University) and in Belgium (at the Université de Liège). He is the general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and is at work on a volume of essays.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 7, 2008
It's definitely in the category of "light reading," but I thought that West does a nice job of delving into Fitzgerald's first love, which like many, is largely unrequited (if I remember correctly).
December 21, 2021
Light and interesting - especially historically. Also with two short stories by Fitzgerald, with 'Winter Dreams' being the classier one.
June 16, 2024
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I’ve had it on my shelf for a while. It did give great insight to young people and their relationships in the early 1920s. Personally I was hoping to know more about Ginevra King. Instead we get mostly a portrayal of how Fitzgerald perceived her (vs. how she actually was) and then used that to inspire so many female characters in his writing.
December 6, 2014
I was aware of Ginevra King, but was not aware of the impact she had on F. Scott Fitzgerald's writings. Their romance lasted for two years from January 4th 1915, into 1917. It flourished for 6 months in 1915, and became largely epistolary thereafter. It was Ginevra's letters that perhaps had a larger influence on Fitzgerald than her actual persona. He freely borrowed from them in several novels and many short stories. She is very evident in This Side of Paradise, and in my opinion she is the main inspiration for Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, rather than Zelda. She is also present in five of the Basil and Josephine stories, and three of the Basil Duke Lee stories. She is also in Winter Dreams, A Diamond as Big as the Ritz, and Babes in the Woods. And a late-in-life encounter with Ginevra in 1937 was the inspiration for Three Hours Between Planes. Ginevra was Fitzgerald's first serious romantic experience with the truly wealthy. Though Zelda would become the love of his life and main artistic inspiration, she was not from wealth. That role strictly belongs to Ginevra. West does a good job in pulling out Fitzgerald's ideas on his writing.
"Mostly, we writers must repeat ourselves—that's the truth. We have two or three great moving experiences in our lives—experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time that anyone else has been so caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before....Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories—each time in a new disguise—maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen." It is my opinion that that he had two stories—Ginevra and Zelda—and Ginevra was the unattainable green light at the end of the dock.
"Mostly, we writers must repeat ourselves—that's the truth. We have two or three great moving experiences in our lives—experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time that anyone else has been so caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before....Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories—each time in a new disguise—maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen." It is my opinion that that he had two stories—Ginevra and Zelda—and Ginevra was the unattainable green light at the end of the dock.
October 17, 2012
In high school I did a research project about F. Scott Fitzgerald. I found a lot of information about his wife Zelda who intrigued me. She inspired many of Scott's works and was a lasting influence on his life.
This book exposes another influence, perhaps an even greater one because of how early Ginevra King met Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald fell in love with the vivacious girl and shared a romance with her that helped shape his ideal woman.
The problem with this book is it's brevity. It details the backgrounds of both participants in the relationship and discusses their lives after the romance ended. For the time they were together, letters that were saved and diary entries are used to explain the relationship. However, although the author says that Ginevra King influenced Fitzgerald's works and gives examples, he never explains why she made such an impact.
I was disappointed that although Ginevra King was shown to be as much an influence on Fitzgerald's work as Zelda, she was shown to be less eloquent, vivacious, beautiful and articulate. Out of the five letters in the appendix of the book and the other many diary, story and letter references, I found one quote from Ginevra that was easy to relate to. The rest was chatter and not worth saving or dwelling over. This only adds to the confusion over why King made such an impact on Fitzgerald's life or why this book was even written.
This book exposes another influence, perhaps an even greater one because of how early Ginevra King met Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald fell in love with the vivacious girl and shared a romance with her that helped shape his ideal woman.
The problem with this book is it's brevity. It details the backgrounds of both participants in the relationship and discusses their lives after the romance ended. For the time they were together, letters that were saved and diary entries are used to explain the relationship. However, although the author says that Ginevra King influenced Fitzgerald's works and gives examples, he never explains why she made such an impact.
I was disappointed that although Ginevra King was shown to be as much an influence on Fitzgerald's work as Zelda, she was shown to be less eloquent, vivacious, beautiful and articulate. Out of the five letters in the appendix of the book and the other many diary, story and letter references, I found one quote from Ginevra that was easy to relate to. The rest was chatter and not worth saving or dwelling over. This only adds to the confusion over why King made such an impact on Fitzgerald's life or why this book was even written.
December 16, 2020
In the studies of F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the more important people in Fitzgerald’s life was Ginevra King. Fitzgerald and King met fewer than a dozen times in person, so how could she possibly be so important to him? Ginevra King was Scott’s first serious girlfriend, and she inspired many of his female characters in his fiction. In the 2005 book The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love, by esteemed Fitzgerald scholar James L.W. West III, the full story of Scott and Ginevra’s romance is finally told.
Scott and Ginevra met in Saint Paul in January of 1915, at the home of Marie Hersey, a mutual friend. Fitzgerald was a sophomore at Princeton University when he met Ginevra, who was two years younger and a student as Westover, a girl’s boarding school in Connecticut. Fitzgerald was from Saint Paul, and the King family was from Chicago. The Fitzgeralds still enjoyed high social standing in Saint Paul, but the family was coasting as the money slowly ran out. In contrast, the Kings were very wealthy, and Ginevra’s father was a stockbroker. The Kings had a large summer residence in Lake Forest and were building a four-story mansion in the Gold Coast area of Chicago.
Scott and Ginevra were instantly smitten with each other and carried on a long-distance romance for two years that was largely conducted through letters. Unfortunately, after their break-up, Scott badgered Ginevra to destroy all of his letters to her. (The modern-day equivalent would be deleting one’s texts, I suppose.) Ginevra’s original letters do not survive, so Scott presumably destroyed those, but before doing so, he hired someone to type them up, and had them bound in a book, which is 227 pages long! (Fitzgerald did not type himself, ergo he must have found someone to type the letters for him.) After Fitzgerald’s death, his daughter Scottie gave the letters back to Ginevra. Ginevra’s descendants allowed West to have full access to her letters, which they have now donated to the Princeton University Library, where they reside with Fitzgerald’s papers.
Thanks to his access to Ginevra’s letters, West can show us that Ginevra reciprocated Scott’s affections, at least for a while. Scott and Ginevra met in person just eight times that we know of. Six of those meetings occurred in 1915, and just two in 1916, indicating that the flame had cooled considerably by then. They broke up in January 1917, two years after their initial meeting. Ginevra later told Scott’s first biographer that she didn’t even remember if she had ever kissed Scott. Ouch. By the summer of 1918, Ginevra was engaged to Billy Mitchell, a family friend who was a naval aviator—the most romantic type of soldiering a young man could do in World War I. Unsurprisingly, Ginevra went for the super-wealthy WASP friend of the family rather than the aspiring novelist with no trust fund from the Irish Catholic family.
Scott was invited to Ginevra’s wedding, which took place in Chicago in September of 1918, but in all likelihood, he did not attend, as he was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Alabama. Fitzgerald did paste the wedding invitation into his scrapbook, along with a newspaper article describing the wedding. By the time of Ginevra’s wedding, Scott had already met his future wife: the vivacious southern belle Zelda Sayre.
Fitzgerald’s personal life always informed his fiction, and there are numerous connections between the two. He used Ginevra as the model for several characters. In his first novel, This Side of Paradise, elements of Ginevra appear in both Isabelle Borge and Rosalind Connage, two flames of the narrator (and Fitzgerald proxy) Amory Blaine. Ginevra was also the inspiration for Judy Jones, the femme fatale in one of his finest short stories, “Winter Dreams,” first published in 1922.
And what about The Great Gatsby, old sport? Ginevra most likely inspired aspects of the character of Daisy Fay Buchanan. It’s an oversimplification to say that Ginevra was Daisy. As West writes, “Daisy Buchanan is a composite.” (p.96) Aspects of both Ginevra and Zelda went into Daisy’s character, but Daisy’s wealth and social status are much more in line with Ginevra King’s rather than Zelda Sayre’s.
The narrative part of The Perfect Hour is rather short, just over 100 pages. Fortunately, West has also included some of Ginevra’s diary entries, five of her letters to Fitzgerald, and the texts of “Babes in the Woods” and “Winter Dreams” two of the short stories that Ginevra helped to inspire. For a Fitzgerald fan, The Perfect Hour is a must-read, as West tells Scott and Ginevra’s story honestly, without hyperbole or exaggeration.
Scott and Ginevra met in Saint Paul in January of 1915, at the home of Marie Hersey, a mutual friend. Fitzgerald was a sophomore at Princeton University when he met Ginevra, who was two years younger and a student as Westover, a girl’s boarding school in Connecticut. Fitzgerald was from Saint Paul, and the King family was from Chicago. The Fitzgeralds still enjoyed high social standing in Saint Paul, but the family was coasting as the money slowly ran out. In contrast, the Kings were very wealthy, and Ginevra’s father was a stockbroker. The Kings had a large summer residence in Lake Forest and were building a four-story mansion in the Gold Coast area of Chicago.
Scott and Ginevra were instantly smitten with each other and carried on a long-distance romance for two years that was largely conducted through letters. Unfortunately, after their break-up, Scott badgered Ginevra to destroy all of his letters to her. (The modern-day equivalent would be deleting one’s texts, I suppose.) Ginevra’s original letters do not survive, so Scott presumably destroyed those, but before doing so, he hired someone to type them up, and had them bound in a book, which is 227 pages long! (Fitzgerald did not type himself, ergo he must have found someone to type the letters for him.) After Fitzgerald’s death, his daughter Scottie gave the letters back to Ginevra. Ginevra’s descendants allowed West to have full access to her letters, which they have now donated to the Princeton University Library, where they reside with Fitzgerald’s papers.
Thanks to his access to Ginevra’s letters, West can show us that Ginevra reciprocated Scott’s affections, at least for a while. Scott and Ginevra met in person just eight times that we know of. Six of those meetings occurred in 1915, and just two in 1916, indicating that the flame had cooled considerably by then. They broke up in January 1917, two years after their initial meeting. Ginevra later told Scott’s first biographer that she didn’t even remember if she had ever kissed Scott. Ouch. By the summer of 1918, Ginevra was engaged to Billy Mitchell, a family friend who was a naval aviator—the most romantic type of soldiering a young man could do in World War I. Unsurprisingly, Ginevra went for the super-wealthy WASP friend of the family rather than the aspiring novelist with no trust fund from the Irish Catholic family.
Scott was invited to Ginevra’s wedding, which took place in Chicago in September of 1918, but in all likelihood, he did not attend, as he was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Alabama. Fitzgerald did paste the wedding invitation into his scrapbook, along with a newspaper article describing the wedding. By the time of Ginevra’s wedding, Scott had already met his future wife: the vivacious southern belle Zelda Sayre.
Fitzgerald’s personal life always informed his fiction, and there are numerous connections between the two. He used Ginevra as the model for several characters. In his first novel, This Side of Paradise, elements of Ginevra appear in both Isabelle Borge and Rosalind Connage, two flames of the narrator (and Fitzgerald proxy) Amory Blaine. Ginevra was also the inspiration for Judy Jones, the femme fatale in one of his finest short stories, “Winter Dreams,” first published in 1922.
And what about The Great Gatsby, old sport? Ginevra most likely inspired aspects of the character of Daisy Fay Buchanan. It’s an oversimplification to say that Ginevra was Daisy. As West writes, “Daisy Buchanan is a composite.” (p.96) Aspects of both Ginevra and Zelda went into Daisy’s character, but Daisy’s wealth and social status are much more in line with Ginevra King’s rather than Zelda Sayre’s.
The narrative part of The Perfect Hour is rather short, just over 100 pages. Fortunately, West has also included some of Ginevra’s diary entries, five of her letters to Fitzgerald, and the texts of “Babes in the Woods” and “Winter Dreams” two of the short stories that Ginevra helped to inspire. For a Fitzgerald fan, The Perfect Hour is a must-read, as West tells Scott and Ginevra’s story honestly, without hyperbole or exaggeration.
June 11, 2025
Gatsby, not surprisingly, is my favorite novel. I’ve read it countless times over the years and something new always strikes me. This is the first full-length non-fiction text I’ve read about Fitzgerald though. I recently learned of Ginerva King through a book of history on Lake County and subsequently this book.
I felt this was the perfect biographical sketch. It wasn’t overly long (100ish pages of synthesis and analysis), which meant it covered the interesting parts without becoming too weighed down by details. The appendix, including excepts of diary entries and drafts of stories, was interesting. The photographs and images of letters made it feel like I was researching and discovering along with the author.
Aside from the details of FSG and GK’s flirtation, the general practices around courtship were really interesting. The author does a great job of contextualizing the pair’s correspondence in relation to social class norms at the time.
I felt this was the perfect biographical sketch. It wasn’t overly long (100ish pages of synthesis and analysis), which meant it covered the interesting parts without becoming too weighed down by details. The appendix, including excepts of diary entries and drafts of stories, was interesting. The photographs and images of letters made it feel like I was researching and discovering along with the author.
Aside from the details of FSG and GK’s flirtation, the general practices around courtship were really interesting. The author does a great job of contextualizing the pair’s correspondence in relation to social class norms at the time.
October 20, 2025
I have been a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald since high school, which I spent in Lake Forest, Illinois. So I am embarrassed to say I did not know the story of his first love, Ginevra King of Lake Forest. The influence of his wife Zelda on Fitzgerald's fiction is well known, but Ginevra arguably played an even larger role in his depiction of heroines ranging from Josephine Perry to the immortal Daisy Buchanan. Certainly Fitzgerald experienced the first wounds of inferiority inflicted by Ginevra's wealth and social position, and he wrote endlessly about those themes. An invaluable little book for anyone seriously interested in Fitzgerald's life and work.
June 3, 2020
It's been awhile since I've read this, but I recall liking it. We get so caught up thinking that Scott only ever loved Zelda, and that is definitely not the case. Ginevra King was way out of Scott's league, and likely served as a lovely appertif to the lifestyle to which he aspired.
July 12, 2019
Re-read. Wrote papers on Fitzgerald in college--loved him. Now I found this book to be short and readable, but more like a defense of a theory than anything substantial.
Read
May 24, 2022Nicely done backstory; well researched; good evening's read.
May 15, 2024
repetitive, flat, gave nothing inquisitive
May 12, 2013
This has been on my shelf for years and seeing Gatsby last night compelled me to read more about Ginevra King, the model for Daisy. To think if Fitzgerald had not remained in Saint Paul an extra night for a party, The Great Gatsby and so many of his stories would never have existed. He met Ginevra there and despite the fact that they spent only about 15 hours in each others' company over a year and a half, they had an intense epistolary relationship, and she forever remained a sort of key to his youthful impressions of love, longing and rejection. I was fascinated to read the story written by Ginevra herself for Fitzgerald ("The Perfect Hour") that may have been the template of The Great Gatsby. The discovery of King's letters to Fitzgerald is a major development ably contextualized by West.
December 18, 2013
This book just doesn't live up to its publicity. Only about half of the book actually reviews the relationship between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his first love, Ginevra King; the remainder reproduces two of Fitzgerald's short stories in which Mr. West believes Fitzgerald based the lead female characters on Ginevra, some entries from Ginevra's diary, and a Notes section. Also included is a bibliography - reading the books listed here will give you a much better idea of Fitzgerald's character and his relationships with women, especially that with Zelda, the love of his life and his very troubled wife.
Not much else to say, so I'll close this review now. If you decide to read this book, just take it out of the library. It's not work the purchase price!
Not much else to say, so I'll close this review now. If you decide to read this book, just take it out of the library. It's not work the purchase price!
January 13, 2014
West's essay is a must-read for any Fitzgerald geek looking to get a fully-rounded history of him.
Although Scott and Ginevra were only romantically involved for a short period, her influence stayed with him for the rest of his life. Indeed many of the characters/stories that I'd always assumed had their basis in Zelda are, in fact, quite clearly Ginevra.
For her part, she seems like a lovely and interesting lady with a great deal of respect for her ex and no interest in selling her story. I'd love to know more about her and the rest of The Big Four!
Only a short read but definitely a missing link in the exhaustive chain of Fitzgerald biogs and a must-read for anyone with an interest in his life and work.
Although Scott and Ginevra were only romantically involved for a short period, her influence stayed with him for the rest of his life. Indeed many of the characters/stories that I'd always assumed had their basis in Zelda are, in fact, quite clearly Ginevra.
For her part, she seems like a lovely and interesting lady with a great deal of respect for her ex and no interest in selling her story. I'd love to know more about her and the rest of The Big Four!
Only a short read but definitely a missing link in the exhaustive chain of Fitzgerald biogs and a must-read for anyone with an interest in his life and work.
June 21, 2013
This book was incredibly interesting, well researched, and a pleasure to read. The only reason I give it 4 stars is because it left a bad taste in my mouth about F. Scott Fitzgerald and now i am having trouble separating the ideas in this book with his fiction...perhaps that is some of his allure, though, and why he and Zelda are just as famous (notorious?) as the characters in his books. Still, I might wait to read/re-read more of Fitgerald's work so this book doesn't color my reading too much.
October 1, 2013
Really wonderful book. With letter writing being the only way to carry on a long distance romance in those days, nobody in the country was in better position to possibly win the affections of a millionaires daughter than FSF. While his letters to her were destroyed, the ones she sent to him show much about the morals and restraint of the time. "I am Charlotte Simons" this book is not. Very charming read.
January 25, 2009
A perfect partner to The Great Gatsby. The story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his first and lost love is the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. The real-life story overlaps with fiction to create one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and this story explains the inspiration for one of America's most tortured authors.
January 14, 2015
A wonderful little book addressing the importance of Ginevra King, Fitzgerald's first love, and how she infected his work. We all know Zelda was important to his writing, but Ginevra is the "rich" girl that stole his heart and the girl he tries to impress in his short stories and novels. My only complaint is I wish there was more information on her life.
December 27, 2015
A quick and easy read, but certainly an informative addition to the long list of books about Fitzgerald. The author does a good job of illustrating how so much of Fitzgerald's writing is based on Ginevra King. Includes two stories Fitzgerald based on his relationship with Ginevra, as well as samples from Ginevra's diary and her letters to Fitzgerald.
July 4, 2012
I enjoyed this book. It provided a lot of basic background information on Fitzgerald and his writing. I would have enjoyed it more had it been more in-depth. However, if you are looking for a place to start, this book is a good introduction.
January 6, 2013
This is a book worth reading if you like Fitzgerald. And it seems to present an accurate portrayal of Ginevra King and their involvement. Even better, it has 2 short stories: stories that you know you mean to read but somehow would never find the time. That man could write!
April 29, 2008
Not as fascinating as the letters between F. Scott and Zelda, but Ginevra King was the actual model for Daisy in The Great Gatsby, which makes for some interesting reading.
December 25, 2008
Who knew heartbreak and obsession could be so constructive?
February 26, 2012
My college professor wrote this! I loved it!
April 19, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Interesting to read the absurdity of teenhood in a time so far removed. Much has vanished but much has stayed the same.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews