F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography

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‘There never was a good biography of a novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good’.   

                                                                                                F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Crack-Up, p.177.

 

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This composite biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald will unite the contributions of some twenty scholars, each writing a chapter covering approximately two years of Fitzgerald’s life. The project has two main objectives. Firstly, to serve as a commentary on the subjectively-constructed nature of biography. That is, to emphasise how a biographer’s choice of emphasis, methodology, and theoretical approach results in an idiosyncratic presentation of Fitzgerald’s life and work. The process of biographic interpretation – what Scott Donaldson aptly terms ‘the impossible craft’ – has resulted in subtly (or indeed, not so subtly) distinct portraits of Fitzgerald. Secondly, by asking scholars to focus on a two-year window, we hope to force our contributors to uncover under-explored topics, such as friendships, life events, or works, that are sometimes excluded in conventional career-wide biographies which favour what are perceived as Fitzgerald’s main achievements or relationships. In this way, no one area of Fitzgerald’s life or creative output will be emphasised more than any other.

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This volume will feature contributions from notable academics, as well as experts in other fields, and aims to feature voices from various career points. The contributors are: Helen Turner, Martina Mastandrea, Philip McGowan, Joel Kabot, Ross Tangedal, Kayla Forrest, David Page, Sara Kosiba, Ronald Berman, David Rennie, James L. W. West III, Niklas Salmose, Walter Raubicheck, Bryant Mangum, Marie-Agnès Gay, Jade Adams, Catherine Delesalle-Nancey, Kirk Curnutt, Scott Donaldson, William Blazek, Elisabeth Bouzonviller, Arne Lunde and Jackson Bryer.

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Follow the progress of the project on this webpage.