The Great Gatsby 100

Who Turned The Great Gatsby into an Allegory of the American Dream? Podcast — Critique and Failure “Gatsby, may be taken not only as an individual character but also as a symbolic or even allegorical character. It comes to seem more and more plausible that Gatsby, divided between power and dream, i...

Who Made Gatsby Great? The Great Gatsby was not always regarded as a classic. This 30 minute podcast traces the evolution of F Scott Fitzgerald's legendary novel & how it eventually found favor in the chaos of WWII. #Literature #SkyBooks #History www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/gatsby-alleg...

13 “Woke” Books Banned in DOD Schools | ACLU The Department of Defense has banned more than 500 titles from its military schools, alleging the books promote “woke” ideologies about race, gender, sex and sexuality.

I've been writing about the revival of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby after it was given away free to American soldiers during WWII as part of the Council on Books in Wartime initiative, a direct challenge to the Nazi book burnings. Disturbing reading #SkyBooks
www.aclu.org/news/free-sp...

F Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, was proudly but distantly related to Francis Scott Key, composer of The Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem. It was composed at The Indian Queen Hotel in Baltimore, owned by John Gadsby. #BookSky #History

Forgotten Man: American Dream in Crisis - Great Gatsby Centenary Podcast In the 1930s, F. Scott Fitzgerald, suffering personal and professional decline, struggled for recognition as The Great Gatsby faded from memory. Amid Zelda’s worsening mental health and the rise of Am...

Podcast. In the summer of 1935, Gatsby author, F Scott Fitzgerald, headed to Asheville. Among his neighbours was the American fascist, William Dudley Pelley. This short series of podcasts explores Scott's encounters with fascism and communism. #BookSky
www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/american-dre...

Been thinking about the publication of The Great Gatsby on Good Friday 1925. When President Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday 1865, many found it almost impossible not to find some kind of symbolic correspondence with the crucifixion, especially with the reconciliation that followed. #BookSky

“Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!” What do the Great Gatsby and President Donald Trump have in common? Nostalgia. Here's a 17-minute podcast on Donald's Politics of the Factory Reset. tinyurl.com/5x4zx49k #BookSky #History #Politics

The Eyes of Dr T.J. Eckleburg, Valley of Ashes, Inspiration, Meaning, Symbolism — Great Gatsby One of the most memorable scenes in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are the Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in the Valley of Ashes. But what was the meaning and inspiration behind it? A brand new find sheds ...

The Eyes of T. J. Eckleburg, The Valley of Ashes and the Meaning and Inspiration Behind Them. 15 minute podcast and article on The Great Gatsby's creepiest dimension. #BookSky
www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/t-j-ecklebur...

The Vegetable, F. Scott Fitzgerald — A Eugenic Guide to Being a Great Idiot 16-minute podcast discussion If F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exposed the tragic reality of Eugenics and the cruel, pyrrhic triumph of the American Dream, then it was only because previous at...

A vegetable in the White House? Surely he wasn't predicting Donald Trump? A look at a little known play by Gatsby author, F Scott Fitzgerald in which he imagines a complete moron elected as president. #BookSky #History #Literature www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/vegetable-eu...

So sad to hear about the death of Robert Redford. I think I was ten when I watched him in The Great Gatsby for the first time. Was completely and utterly mesmerized by the story. Among the careless folk of Hollywood, he was worth the whole damn bunch put together.

Big thanks to the staff of the The Brooke Russell Astor room at the NYPL for putting their hands on the letters from Scott's biographer Arthur Mizener & his wife to his friend, V F Calverton in the early to mid 1930s. Seems they used to meet in NY prior to Scott's death.

A ‘Secret Mission’ to Russia. How F. Scott Fitzgerald very nearly became a spy. In 1917, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, was nearly recruited for a covert mission to Russia, posing as a Red Cross secretary for Father Sigourney Fay. The mission, tied to US State D...

A ‘Secret Mission’ to Russia. How the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, very nearly became a spy. With podcast discussion. #History #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/secret-missi...

It's a throwaway line from Zelda. Calverton was a bit of a Trotskyist & he and the young Mizener regarded themselves as 'American revolutionists'. It was likely Calverton's influence that set the ball in motion for Gatsby being read as a straight allegory of the failure of the American Dream.

I think this clipping could have been sent to Scott Fitzgerald by Max Gerlach. It says in handwriting, 'Meant to send this to you sooner'. Its from the St Louis Post Dispatch, May 1923. Its abt changes in liquor laws to the 3 mile limit. Max's 'old sport' clipping came from the same newspaper.

Bill Ryan said recently that, “pretty much every famous classic work of art has over time become the victim of Received Cultural Wisdom.” I've been looking at letters exchanged in the early 1930s between Arthur Mizener & Scott's friend V.F Calverton — 'the community communist' according to Zelda.

Ordering a copy of this from ebay. Was a bit pricey on Amazon. Now that I'm down to proofing and decluttering I can go crackers on secondary sources. Sarah Churchwell's book is another I'm hoping to pick up.

The Great Gatsby musical at the London Coliseum September 4, 2025. My daughter was thrilled at seeing it, not least because of Corbin Bleu.

There's a PDF copy of a Gatsby centenary article by Horst Kruse available here. Professor Kruse studied under Scott's first biographer Arthur Mizener at Cornell University and worked with Matthew Bruccoli on the story of Max Gerlach Use Google translate www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/kruse-feuill...

How we misread The Great Gatsby The greatness of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel lies in its details. But they are often overlooked.

Sarah Churchwell with an article that sets the bar much higher than many Gatsby scholars have done of late. Covers quite an area. www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

so a bit green, you might say.

“He started as one man I knew — and then changed into myself.” 100 years ago F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his old Princeton friend, John Peale Bishop and confessed that Gatsby had been an amalgam of himself and 'one man' he had known. #BookSky

It probably is. Bound to have its hecklers but you may as well embrace it. Would be foolish not to. One day everybody will be a writer, artist, poet, musician, content provider, and the like. Nothing will be wonderful because everything will be wonderful. Think I'd better have a lie down. :-)

On October 2, 1917 Father Fay wrote to Shane Leslie saying his trip to Russia with Scott had been shelved: “At the last moment the expedition to Russia had to be cancelled on account of the new Revolution.” This was NOT the October Revolution that took place in November on our calendar.

'm reminded of that 60s film staring Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin , 'They Shoot Presidents Don't They.

In the process of fact checking again. Third read through and still correcting errors of all kinds. Dare say it will continue like this for awhile. Hope the effort pays off.

Just as he was after seaside resorts in Libya during his bromance with Gaddafi — another dictator. This is a really worrying precedent for the UN which has already proved how broken it is. Promises to hurt everybody in the end. If it can't resolve this, it can't resolve anything. Putin will love it.

Another purchase. The second in a collection of memoirs from Edmund Wilson, one of the most distinguished American critics of his time. Close friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. #BookSky

I think I remember Peter Gabriel saying that masks are not always about hiding something in you, but bringing something out? Those inner hidden dimensions we all have. Always intriguing things, masks.

Just in case Trump is reading, the Red Planet is not Russia.

There's a PDF copy of a Gatsby centenary article by Horst Kruse available here. Professor Kruse studied under Scott's first biographer Arthur Mizener at Cornell University and worked with Matthew Bruccoli on the story of Max Gerlach Use Google translate www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/kruse-feuill...

Big fan of the film. Ted Neeley has an incredible range. Carl Anderson too.