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Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald
By exploring often through fresh evidence his involvement with a bizarre mother, a popular girlfriend, a neurotic wife, a devoted lover, and other fascinating females, Mr. Donaldson has managed, in very readable fashion, to reveal the complex man behind the simplistic legend.
-- John Kuehl, editor of Dear Scott Dear Max "The most penetrating psychological examination of the author ever written."
-- James L. W. West III, Studies in American Fiction
-- John Kuehl, editor of Dear Scott Dear Max "The most penetrating psychological examination of the author ever written."
-- James L. W. West III, Studies in American Fiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Scott Donaldson
28 books10 followersScott Donaldson was one of the nation's leading literary biographers. His books include the acclaimed Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life and Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, which won the Ambassador Book Award for biography. His other works are Poet in America: Winfield Townley Scott; By Force of Will: The Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway; Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald; John Cheever: A Biography; and Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 11, 2012
If you only read one Fitzgerald biography... don't make it this one. Bruccoli's "Some Sort of Epic Grandeur," Piper's Fitzgerald, Turnbull's Fitzgerald, or even Mizener's "The Far Side of Paradise" are all better options—chronological, critically minded, thorough, and effective at sketching the story of Fitzgerald that everyone knows or ought to know.
If you're only going to read two Fitzgerald biographies—I don't know, you're probably better reading one of the major ones and then Turnbull's, which is a kind of hybrid of the Fitzgerald the more scholarly bios present and a memoir of someone who knew him.
But if you're going to read three Fitzgerald biographies, this is an interesting third one—more an elliptical collection of Fitzgerald-related essays on non-chronological topics than a biography. It swirls around and eventually gets from his childhood, and his conflicted feelings about his eccentric parents, to his death, hitting a bunch of interesting subjects in the meantime. Though I wish it were a little more focused on his work.
[original: I think this is the last major Fitzgerald bio I haven't read. Donaldson's Cheever bio was excellent given the circumstances in which he wrote it—after Cheever died, before much of his journals were available—and his recent interview at the Millions was great, so I prospector'd it.]
If you're only going to read two Fitzgerald biographies—I don't know, you're probably better reading one of the major ones and then Turnbull's, which is a kind of hybrid of the Fitzgerald the more scholarly bios present and a memoir of someone who knew him.
But if you're going to read three Fitzgerald biographies, this is an interesting third one—more an elliptical collection of Fitzgerald-related essays on non-chronological topics than a biography. It swirls around and eventually gets from his childhood, and his conflicted feelings about his eccentric parents, to his death, hitting a bunch of interesting subjects in the meantime. Though I wish it were a little more focused on his work.
[original: I think this is the last major Fitzgerald bio I haven't read. Donaldson's Cheever bio was excellent given the circumstances in which he wrote it—after Cheever died, before much of his journals were available—and his recent interview at the Millions was great, so I prospector'd it.]
June 6, 2017
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote in his notebooks, “There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people if he’s any good.” Fitzgerald was a very good novelist, and he presents a complex and contradictory figure for a biographer to take on.
Scott Donaldson’s 1983 biography Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a penetrating look at this brilliant writer. Donaldson did not seek to present the reader with an exhaustive, comprehensive approach like Fitzgerald biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli, rather, Donaldson presents what he sees as the different keys to Fitzgerald’s psychology and personality.
Donaldson examines Fitzgerald’s adolescence in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Fitzgerald’s social rank within the upper classes of Saint Paul. (As a fellow Minnesotan, Donaldson is well-equipped for this task.) Fitzgerald’s social status allowed him access to the world of the wealthy, but he never felt like he truly belonged to that world.
One chapter of Fool for Love dissects Scott’s marriage to Zelda Sayre, which had become a truly toxic cocktail of hatred and jealousy by the time of Zelda’s mental breakdowns in the 1930’s. Scott and Zelda may have loved each other, but if they had continued to live together, they would have destroyed each other even more thoroughly than they already had.
Fitzgerald’s alcoholism is a focus throughout the book, and Donaldson uncovered excellent material covering Fitzgerald’s “crack-up” period from 1934 to 1936. In the summer of 1935 Fitzgerald was living in Asheville, North Carolina, where he met a divorcee named Laura Guthrie, who was working in his hotel as a palm reader. They instantly had a deep connection, and although they never became lovers, Guthrie worked as Fitzgerald’s secretary for the summer. (Being Fitzgerald’s secretary involved many tasks, including accompanying him to the movies.) Guthrie later wrote down her recollections of Fitzgerald, and while they were never published as a book, the manuscript is in the collection of Fitzgerald’s papers at Princeton University. Donaldson makes excellent use of Guthrie’s writing to flesh out his portrait of the artist at his lowest ebb. During this time Fitzgerald was writing some of the stories, initially rejected by the magazines of the day, that were recently collected in 2017’s I’d Die for You. He was also writing trivial oddities like “Shaggy’s Morning,” a short story written from the point of view of a dog—Matthew J. Bruccoli writes that the story “may or may not have been intended as a parody of Hemingway.” (Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, p.397)
Even at this moment of extreme drinking and depression, Fitzgerald could still be a sharp analyst of his own work, telling Laura Guthrie, “My characters are all Scott Fitzgerald. Even the feminine characters are female Scott Fitzgeralds.” (p.209) He also told her, “Everything is either love or money. There is nothing else that counts.” (p.99)
Fitzgerald was aware enough to know how bad things were getting, if only in hindsight. He later wrote of this period in his notebooks: “My life looked like a hopeless mess there for a while, and the point was I didn’t want it to be better. I had completely ceased to give a good god-damn.” (p.156) As he prophetically wrote in a 1926 letter: “Wherever you go, you take yourselves and your faults with you. In the mountains or in the city, you make the same things happen.” (p.172)
It may sound like a stereotype, but reading Fool for Love led me to the conclusion that Fitzgerald really was an extremely sensitive artist. He was deeply in tune with so many nuances of meaning, and sharp delineations of class and status. I suspect he probably felt emotions more deeply than most people—this is part of the reason he was such a great writer, and also probably why he was hurt so easily by other people as well. As Donaldson wrote:
“In his papers at Princeton are at least three lists of snubs, with the longest of them naming a total of sixty-six people who had snubbed him during the 1925-29 period. To have been put down by so many in so short a time suggests (1) that some of the snubs were imaginary rather than real, though it was during these years that he and Zelda became personae non gratae because of their drinking and quarreling, and (2) that out of masochism or self-hatred he was actually courting the disapproval of others.” (p.181)
Fitzgerald was a charmer, but his shaky self-confidence meant that he constantly needed the approval of others. Donaldson wrote: “Almost everyone who knew him was struck by his obvious—even painfully obvious—desire to please.” (p.191) Margaret Egloff, who met Fitzgerald in Switzerland in 1931 said: “As far as I know, everyone who was really exposed to him loved him. He simply couldn’t bear it if they didn’t.” (p.191) Fitzgerald’s charm was considerable, as Margaret Turnbull said that he “had this extraordinary quality of giving you his undivided attention.” (p.191) Her son Andrew Turnbull wrote of him: “Fitzgerald focused on you-even riveted on you-and if there was one thing you were sure of, it was that whatever you happened to be talking about was the most important matter in the world.” (Scott Fitzgerald, by Andrew Turnbull, p.225) Donaldson quotes from a 1938 letter Fitzgerald wrote about Dick Diver, the protagonist of Tender is the Night: “Dick’s curiosity and interest in people was real—he didn’t stare at them—he glanced at them and felt them.” (p.196) I think this letter relates closely to how Fitzgerald saw himself, and fits in with his heightened sensitivity to people. As an adolescent, one of Fitzgerald’s favorite flirtatious gambits was to tell a girl he had just met, “I’ve got an adjective that describes just you.” While this was most likely just a line meant to pique a girl’s interest in him, it fits in with Fitzgerald’s writing about Dick Diver, “he glanced at them and felt them,” as though Fitzgerald had a sudden flash of insight into people’s character as soon as he met them.
Reading Fool for Love is a somewhat melancholy experience, as the reader sees what a mess the private life of this marvelously talented man was. I wish Fitzgerald’s life could have been as smooth and beautiful as one of his own sentences, but that was not to be.
Scott Donaldson’s 1983 biography Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a penetrating look at this brilliant writer. Donaldson did not seek to present the reader with an exhaustive, comprehensive approach like Fitzgerald biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli, rather, Donaldson presents what he sees as the different keys to Fitzgerald’s psychology and personality.
Donaldson examines Fitzgerald’s adolescence in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Fitzgerald’s social rank within the upper classes of Saint Paul. (As a fellow Minnesotan, Donaldson is well-equipped for this task.) Fitzgerald’s social status allowed him access to the world of the wealthy, but he never felt like he truly belonged to that world.
One chapter of Fool for Love dissects Scott’s marriage to Zelda Sayre, which had become a truly toxic cocktail of hatred and jealousy by the time of Zelda’s mental breakdowns in the 1930’s. Scott and Zelda may have loved each other, but if they had continued to live together, they would have destroyed each other even more thoroughly than they already had.
Fitzgerald’s alcoholism is a focus throughout the book, and Donaldson uncovered excellent material covering Fitzgerald’s “crack-up” period from 1934 to 1936. In the summer of 1935 Fitzgerald was living in Asheville, North Carolina, where he met a divorcee named Laura Guthrie, who was working in his hotel as a palm reader. They instantly had a deep connection, and although they never became lovers, Guthrie worked as Fitzgerald’s secretary for the summer. (Being Fitzgerald’s secretary involved many tasks, including accompanying him to the movies.) Guthrie later wrote down her recollections of Fitzgerald, and while they were never published as a book, the manuscript is in the collection of Fitzgerald’s papers at Princeton University. Donaldson makes excellent use of Guthrie’s writing to flesh out his portrait of the artist at his lowest ebb. During this time Fitzgerald was writing some of the stories, initially rejected by the magazines of the day, that were recently collected in 2017’s I’d Die for You. He was also writing trivial oddities like “Shaggy’s Morning,” a short story written from the point of view of a dog—Matthew J. Bruccoli writes that the story “may or may not have been intended as a parody of Hemingway.” (Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, p.397)
Even at this moment of extreme drinking and depression, Fitzgerald could still be a sharp analyst of his own work, telling Laura Guthrie, “My characters are all Scott Fitzgerald. Even the feminine characters are female Scott Fitzgeralds.” (p.209) He also told her, “Everything is either love or money. There is nothing else that counts.” (p.99)
Fitzgerald was aware enough to know how bad things were getting, if only in hindsight. He later wrote of this period in his notebooks: “My life looked like a hopeless mess there for a while, and the point was I didn’t want it to be better. I had completely ceased to give a good god-damn.” (p.156) As he prophetically wrote in a 1926 letter: “Wherever you go, you take yourselves and your faults with you. In the mountains or in the city, you make the same things happen.” (p.172)
It may sound like a stereotype, but reading Fool for Love led me to the conclusion that Fitzgerald really was an extremely sensitive artist. He was deeply in tune with so many nuances of meaning, and sharp delineations of class and status. I suspect he probably felt emotions more deeply than most people—this is part of the reason he was such a great writer, and also probably why he was hurt so easily by other people as well. As Donaldson wrote:
“In his papers at Princeton are at least three lists of snubs, with the longest of them naming a total of sixty-six people who had snubbed him during the 1925-29 period. To have been put down by so many in so short a time suggests (1) that some of the snubs were imaginary rather than real, though it was during these years that he and Zelda became personae non gratae because of their drinking and quarreling, and (2) that out of masochism or self-hatred he was actually courting the disapproval of others.” (p.181)
Fitzgerald was a charmer, but his shaky self-confidence meant that he constantly needed the approval of others. Donaldson wrote: “Almost everyone who knew him was struck by his obvious—even painfully obvious—desire to please.” (p.191) Margaret Egloff, who met Fitzgerald in Switzerland in 1931 said: “As far as I know, everyone who was really exposed to him loved him. He simply couldn’t bear it if they didn’t.” (p.191) Fitzgerald’s charm was considerable, as Margaret Turnbull said that he “had this extraordinary quality of giving you his undivided attention.” (p.191) Her son Andrew Turnbull wrote of him: “Fitzgerald focused on you-even riveted on you-and if there was one thing you were sure of, it was that whatever you happened to be talking about was the most important matter in the world.” (Scott Fitzgerald, by Andrew Turnbull, p.225) Donaldson quotes from a 1938 letter Fitzgerald wrote about Dick Diver, the protagonist of Tender is the Night: “Dick’s curiosity and interest in people was real—he didn’t stare at them—he glanced at them and felt them.” (p.196) I think this letter relates closely to how Fitzgerald saw himself, and fits in with his heightened sensitivity to people. As an adolescent, one of Fitzgerald’s favorite flirtatious gambits was to tell a girl he had just met, “I’ve got an adjective that describes just you.” While this was most likely just a line meant to pique a girl’s interest in him, it fits in with Fitzgerald’s writing about Dick Diver, “he glanced at them and felt them,” as though Fitzgerald had a sudden flash of insight into people’s character as soon as he met them.
Reading Fool for Love is a somewhat melancholy experience, as the reader sees what a mess the private life of this marvelously talented man was. I wish Fitzgerald’s life could have been as smooth and beautiful as one of his own sentences, but that was not to be.
January 29, 2020
I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed seeing the connections made between Fitzgerald’s work and his life and personality. I don’t think just reading this book would suffice if you wanted to get the full picture of the life of Fitzgerald because of its organization and omissions, but it does give you a very intimate look into his hardships, personality, and background through interviews, analysis, and extensive research (including use of his personal papers).
April 16, 2018
Una biografía de FS Fitzgerald, autor que aprendí a querer y apreciar luego de leer sus "Cartas a mi hija e Historias de Pat Hobby. Sin dejar de mencionar todos los lados oscuros de Fitzgerald (su snobismo, su alcoholismo, su donjuanismo, por decir algunos) la biografía trata de abordar algunas de las facetas de un ser tan complejo como Fitzgerald, capaz de ser un buen padre, un pésimo marido, un gran escritor, un pésimo estudiante, alguien totalmente resentido por sus orígenes humildes, pero que se odiaba por anhelar la riqueza y la posición social que se le escapó siempre. Muy iluminadora para leer todo lo que escribió Fitzgerald.
May 11, 2015
Donaldson pretty much settles the idea that FSF was beset with an inferiority complex about class. Despite income, he was always on the outside looking in. Be compensated with charm, which gave him much more success with women then men. Hemingway, for example, castigated him for being "too open" about his feelings. His relationship with Zelda was essentially over by the end of 1934, and Sheila Graham became the only woman that could make him forget Zelda. Fitzgerald constantly turned toward women for validation, and thus became a "fool for love".
April 7, 2013
I have always been a little obsessed with F Scott Fitzgerald and stumbled across this book while searching out titles for the upcoming wedding. I wasn't sure how dry the biography would be but figured I would at least give it a shot--well worth the effort.
The story is not broken down in a traditional time frame but rather by the spheres of influence in Fitzgerald's life. Sure it begins with childhood and family but also explores the importance of Princeton University and how that shaped him, how his various love interests reflected on his psyche and defined his characters, his love/hate relationship with social status as well as life long struggle with alcohol.
Of course it also spends time on Zelda and their relationship together and apart but also sends a suitable amount of time on his daughter Scottie and how his flaws and favors pressed down upon her as well. It also spends time really talking about his life in Hollywood which is something that seems to be forgotten by most followers.
Smart, clean, in-depth and overreaching at points--much like the man himself. Worth the effort to track this down if you enjoy his books.
The story is not broken down in a traditional time frame but rather by the spheres of influence in Fitzgerald's life. Sure it begins with childhood and family but also explores the importance of Princeton University and how that shaped him, how his various love interests reflected on his psyche and defined his characters, his love/hate relationship with social status as well as life long struggle with alcohol.
Of course it also spends time on Zelda and their relationship together and apart but also sends a suitable amount of time on his daughter Scottie and how his flaws and favors pressed down upon her as well. It also spends time really talking about his life in Hollywood which is something that seems to be forgotten by most followers.
Smart, clean, in-depth and overreaching at points--much like the man himself. Worth the effort to track this down if you enjoy his books.
October 26, 2013
Pretty great biography. I think it gave a balanced view of F. Scott Fitzgerald--the author put as much attention on Fitzgerald's talent and good personal qualities as he did on his faults. Donaldson's writing is quite readable, and this book shows that he is also a talented researcher. Much recommended for Fitzgerald fans, especially those who wish to further understand how his life mirrored his writing.
June 26, 2013
Wonderful book! The author did a good job portraying the dysfunctional life of F.Scott Fitzgerald in a sensitive and thoughtful way. The book was eye -opening for me, as I had falsely assumed that he led a "fairy tale " life, with little dysfunction and celebrity pampering. The author also touched on Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, and her mental health, so now I'd like to read about her life as well.
March 29, 2019
Critical biography that traces the elements of Fitzgerald's life as they influenced his fiction, concluding that his work is some of the most biographically dominated among authors of the period.
June 22, 2013
Found the writing to be very choppy in the first few chapters. Improved as it went along. An interesting portrait of a damaged talented man.
July 17, 2015
I feel closer to the man than ever before. His fiction has most certainly been enough.
July 3, 2018
While I enjoyed most of the story, the misspellings were horrible. I would often find myslef pausing over a word to figure out what the author meant.....misspellings everywhere. I wish it had gone more in chronological order instead of referencing different times, but I wish that on all biographies..
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews