The Perfect Hour
The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a handsome, ambitious sophomore at Princeton when he fell in love for the first time. Ginevra King, though only sixteen, was beautiful, socially poised, and blessed with the confidence that considerable wealth can bring.
Their romance began instantly, flourished in heartfelt letters, and quickly ran its course–but Scott never forgot it. Now, for the first time, scholar and biographer James L. W. West III tells the story of the youthful passion that shaped Scott Fitzgerald’s life as a writer.
When Scott and Ginevra met in January 1915, the rest of the world was at war, but America remained a haven for young people who could afford to have a good time. Privileged and mildly rebellious, the two were swept together in a whirl of dances, parties, campus weekends, and chaperoned visits to New York.
“For heaven’s sake don’t idealize me!” Ginevra warned in one of the many letters she sent to Scott, but of course that’s just what he did–for the next two decades. Though he fell in love with Zelda Sayre soon after learning of Ginevra’s engagement to a well-to-do midwesterner, Scott drew on memories of Ginevra for his most unforgettable female characters–Isabelle Borgé and Rosalind Connage in This Side of Paradise, Judy Jones in “Winter Dreams,” and above all Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Transformed by Scott’s art, Ginevra became a new American heroine who inspired an entire generation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perhaps because Fitzgerald himself epitomizes the romantic hero whose end was tragic, the writer's first romance, when he was a Princeton sophomore, with 16-year-old Ginevra King, engenders an interest beyond its brief, and mainly epistolary, flowering. Using excerpts from Ginevra's diary, discovered in 2003, West adds depth to what is known about their relationship while demonstrating how characters inspired by Ginevra turn up again and again in Fitzgerald's fiction, most famously as Daisy in The Great Gatsby. It's generally accepted that meeting Ginevra was Fitzgerald's introduction to the world of privilege, inspiring his oft-used theme of the poor boy rejected by a wealthy young woman. General editor of the Cambridge edition of Fitzgerald's work, West is on solid ground when he says, "from an artistic standpoint, Ginevra King was nearly as important to him as Zelda." West's text makes up about half this slim volume; the appendix contains five letters from Ginevra, entries from her diary and two short stories in which Ginevra is the model for the heroine. While the information here confirms rather than startles, aficionados will be glad to find reliable background material that enriches understanding of Fitzgerald's work. Together with the recently published Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (Forecasts, Oct. 18), this book helps illuminate the women in Fitzgerald's life. B&w photos.