Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda acts as both a history and epistolary collection of two of the most famous figures in literature, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He was well known for his alcoholism, her for her supposed schizophrenia (modern doctors have a wealth of other considerations). After a whirlwind romance and a literary career that peaked and plummeted, it seemed that all that was left of the It couple of the 1920’s was for Scott to die of an alcohol-induced heart attack, and Zelda to be burned alive in an insane asylum. Tragic, yes, but there is so much more to these two.
Reading Zelda’s letters, of which there are far more than Scott’s in this collection, gives some pretty solid evidence to the claim that Scott Fitzgerald borrowed heavily from his wife’s writing. Her letters are brilliant, and often address the parts of Scott Fitzgerald that are quietly ignored in literary circles. His alcoholism was far worse, according to Zelda, than has been fully documented. Whether it is him passing out in random places, or causing them to be uninvited from others, it’s clear that Zelda was not the only one with secrets. The letters give the reader a feeling that her period of ballet obsession may have been just an attempt to be seen as someone other than the wife of America’s favored son.
If you’re not prepared to feel like you’ve had your heart ripped from your chest, Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda should probably not be on your next to read list. If you want to see more behind the brilliance masked as insanity that was Zelda Fitzgerald, buy this book immediately. I’m not here saying she wasn’t mentally ill; she definitely suffered. However, I feel that Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda shows a side of the couple normally hidden away in Princeton archives.
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda is available updated from Scribners July 23, 2019.
