Customer Reviews:
My favorite book of all time........2004-06-18
Why do you ask? Because of all the other works of literature out there, this one is among the very few which commands my attention with its dizzying abstract imagery and depth. Zelda Fitzgerald was known chiefly as being Mrs. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, which was something she tried to overthrow by becoming a dancer, an artist, and a writer. For those who are interested in reading Zelda's work, this is the only book you need to buy, as it includes her novel "Save Me the Waltz", her play "Scandalabra", as well as her many short stories and articles.
"Save Me the Waltz" is a gorgeous book which Zelda modelled after her own life. Scott and Scottie Fitzgerald are David and Bonnie Knight, Judge Austin and Millie Beggs are Judge Anthony and Minnie Sayre (Zelda's parents), Joan Beggs is Clothilde Sayre (one of Zelda's sisters), Jacques Chevre-Feuille is Edouard Jozan, etc etc. The parallels are impossible to miss if you already know about Zelda's life. It is interesting to read Zelda's many descriptions, for you can actually imagine in your mind what she actually saw.
"Scandalabra" is a light comedic play which, if given a decent production and cast, would be a huge stage hit. Sadly, as far as I know there have only been a couple of productions and each of them were dismal failures. In order to inherit his wealthy uncle's fortune, a young, naive and happily married man must evolve into a scoundrel and paint his wife as an adulteress. All of the characters are careless beings trying to live in a serious world, and therefore it is hard to capture this strange balance on the stage.
Her short stories are all short and sweet vignettes, many of them were published under Scott's byline so they would earn more money rather than if they were only under Zelda's name. Among the best: "A Couple of Nuts", "Our Own Movie Queen" and "Miss Ella". Her articles were mostly done from the perspective of a celebrity's wife, and so naturally they are light pieces of fluff meant to build on the Fitzgerald myth.
If asked to describe this book in just one word, I would have to refuse. There is no single word that can do this collection justice.
a beautiful, surreal book.......1999-06-15
Zelda Fitzgerald spent much of her life trying to struggle out of the shadow of her famous husband. For many years she was both a literal and figurative inspiration for his work, often helping him with his stories. This book of her writings allows her to finally take her own place in the fiction world. Her novel, Save Me the Waltz, is an incredible book in which language becomes surrealistic art. There are two sides to every story, and it is interesting to hear Zelda's interpretation of her life with Fitzgerald. The novel itself is a gradual emotional and physical breakdown as it documents a woman on her voyage of self discovery and artistic fulfillment. It has been said that Zelda was a true original and, once encountered, was never forgotten. The same can be said about her work. Though she will unfortunately always be paired and compared with Fizgerald, her voice and style is all her own.
Average customer rating:
- Beautiful Work
- A must for Zelda fanatics and art lovers alike
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Zelda: An Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald ,
Peter Kurth , and
Jane S. Livingston
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise
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The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald
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Save Me the Waltz
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Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: An American Woman's Life
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The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
ASIN: 0810939835 |
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful Work.......2005-10-27
Zelda Fitzgerald is perhaps one of the most interesting wives of a famous historical figure in history. Not only was Zelda a highly energetic, flirtatious woman, she was a ballerina, a writer, and an artist. Her art is perhaps the least known piece of her work and is presented here excellently.
Zelda's art is reflective of various styles, as the text acknowledges. Her undated work is hard to place because of this. Her work is reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keefe, and Miro in unison. It is also reflective of her life; Zelda painted gruesome dancers and mothers with children, and glorious cityscapes and flowers as well as strangely formed paper dolls and scenes from the Bible, fairy tales, and Alice and Wonderland.
It is too bad that much of Zelda's work does not survive due to being misplaced or destroyed both by Zelda and her family.
The writing analyzes Zelda's artwork quite well. There is text between the presentation of paintings, which seems awkward and yet well placed because the ending presents the painting that follow. The biography is objective and yet warm and biased as well as it was written by Zelda's grandchild.
Overall, this is a well made book that Zelda Fitzgerald fans must read.
A must for Zelda fanatics and art lovers alike.......2004-06-18
This is a relatively new yet hard to find book, but once you've got it I promise it will hold a prestigious place on your bookshelf. The book is filled with high quality photos of every known piece of Zelda's artwork and sketches, plus a mini-bio of Zelda complete with pictures and words from Eleanor Lanahan, Zelda's granddaughter. For those who are interested in art, Zelda Fitzgerald's pieces are enthralling, bewitching and at some extreme viewpoints even repulsive, especially her depictions of ballerinas and of a mother nursing her child. Her work mostly deals in fairytales and religion, as well as various "slices of life" in between. For everyone who is interested in Zelda's life, this is a can't-miss piece to her puzzle that you must find and enjoy.
Book Description
Zelda Sayre began as a Southern beauty, became an international wonder, and died by fire in a madhouse. With her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, she moved in a golden aura of excitement, romance, and promise. The epitome of the Jazz Age, together they rode the crest of the era: to its collapse and their own.
From years of exhaustive research, Nancy Milford brings alive the tormented, elusive personality of Zelda and clarifies as never before her relationship with` Scott Fitzgerald.
Zelda traces the inner disintegration of a gifted, despairing woman, torn by the clash between her husband's career and her own talent.
Customer Reviews:
F. Scott Fitzgerald's Co-Author: The Legend of Zelda.......2007-04-18
While most people know of "The Legend of Zelda" as a video game, in fact the game takes its name from the real Zelda, the wife of F. Scott (Francis Scott Key) Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was without any doubt a superlative author in his own right. However, an interesting and lesser known fact is that his work comes very much out of his own personal experience with his wife Zelda.
Milford's book, which reads like a novel, is an incredible example of what can be done when one combines intense research skills with extraordinary writing acumen. Zelda was a Southern Girl from Montgomery, Alabama, the first capitol of the Confederacy. It was also the home town of Jefferson Davis the only President of the Confederacy. The Southern ways stuck long after the end of the Civil War in Montgomery and Zelda was truly a child of the era.
What is fascinating about Milford's book is what happens to Zelda and Fitzgerald after they marry and move to New York. Fitzgerald produced two very successful books, the second of which was "The Great Gatsby" and then basically expatriated to France where he was in the good company of Ring Lardner, Ernest Hemingway and many others of that ilk. He and Zelda were friend of Dorothy Parker and Gertrude Stein and the list goes on.
Zelda though, was the creative mind behind "The Great Gatsby" and was the one who created the visual image of the character that Fitzgerald used as the basis of his book. Even more interesting is that Zelda, after a wild life with Fitzgerald in their early marital days became a serious alcoholic and had a horribly debilitating mental disorder that kept her in insane asylums for the better part of 12 years. She never did overcome her problem and ultimately died in a fire when serving one of her many commitments as the building was wood, along with the fire escapes.
The book is perhaps one of the greatest biographies ever written and tells a tale of a lady and her famous author husband both of whom lived at the end of an era that shall never return. It is highly recommended for all readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald and makes a superb biographical connection between Zelda and her famous author/screenwriter husband.
At Least Five Stars for Zelda Alone!.......2006-08-16
I was actually surprised to see reviews of those who did not like this bio! Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, daughter of an Alabama Judge, and fashion plate to New York and Paris, was a fascinating woman who, as happens in life, experienced good times and bad. She was the life of the party, she threw the party, she was the party. She attempted things during "mid life" that others of that era would not have thought of attempting--- ballet, painting, writing, etc. I absolutely soared with her spirit when she was on top of the world, and wept when she was deep in depression. I was saddened when she was humiliated by those who didn't know or understand her, and more saddened still when she ended up in an institution in Asheville. But even then, there was an aura about her. She continued to paint while institutionalized, and actually did her self-portrait at that time.
Someone mentioned the fact that F. Scott was mentioned several times in the book, thus the book should have been entitled with the names of both. Well, I'm not sure one could write a book about the wife of such a prolific writer without mentioning his name, but for me, the book was all about Zelda.
This bio is thoroughly researched and extremely well written. The author painted a vivid picture of Zelda in every aspect of her life, and she used the same bold strokes to include the reader. Loved it!! Well done, Ms. Milford!
Good.......2006-06-28
The book came fast, and it came it very good shape. It is my summer reading book and I am looking foward to reading it.
Not Zelda; Scott.......2006-04-06
This book is mistitled. It should be "Scott and Zelda," with Scott's name first, since the novel is weighted toward his life more than hers. It is informative, but could have been 150 pages shorter and still not suffered, if the author would have omitted the large portions she includes from Zelda's novels. I would like to have seen more documentation and interviews from first person witnesses to their lives, many of whom were still available when the book was written.
Poor Account Of A Fascinating Life.......2005-07-20
I agree with one of the other reviewers who found this biographer
cold and unsympathetic. I'd go further and say this is the worst type of academic writing; a lot of facts and documentation are brought out, but the writer simply isn't talented enough to give it vitality. Instead of attempting some sort of personel interpretation of Zelda's life, Milford gives us overlong plot summaries of Zelda's fiction. No analysis! Just the facts! She treats the deaths of both the Fitzgeralds with the compassion of a coroner. People with Nancy Milford's limited abilities shouldn't be writing biograpies. The reader is given a depressing work on a talented artist, and wounded soul, that passes on no understanding, no sympathy, and no appreciation. How horribly bleak.
Customer Reviews:
Stunning collection of Fitzgerald ephemera.......2006-11-11
My girlfriend, a fellow Fitz enthusiast, bought me this for my birthday and it ranks among the best gifts I've ever received. This is an amazing and exhaustively comprehensive scrapbook of the lives of the Fitzgeralds. If you're a fan and come away from this without wanting to get your hands on every single thing those two touched...there's something very, very wrong with you. ;) Beautiful book.
Spectacular Book for F. Scott Fitzgerald Enthusiasts!!.......2006-05-03
If you are a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, this book is an absolute must-have! While I own just about everything that is written by or about Fitzgerald, this is perhaps my favorite book to peruse. It is compiled just like a personal scrapbook and is replete with photos of the Fitzgeralds as well as articles (by and about Fitzgerald)written in the 20s and 30s. Much of this content you will not find elsewhere, at least not in such abundance. Bruccoli, America's leading Fitzgerald scholar (as well as Fitz's own daughter, Scotty) did a spectacular job of putting this together. The scrapbook format gives the book an intimate nature and the set up is extremely attractive. Best of all, at just around $20, it is an absolute steal for the price! If you love Fitzgerald, don't go without this collection! It would make a splendid addition to any high school classroom that teaches Fitzgerald or any personal library that celebrates true literary classics.
Book Description
Linda Wagner-Martin has created a new kind of biography of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: Zelda's story from her perspective, instead of her famous husband's. This is the first biography to tell her entire life story, describing what it meant to be born in 1900, and then to be a "New Woman" in Montgomery, Alabama. Featuring for the first time information from the newly available archives at Princeton, Wagner-Martin vividly illustrates Zelda's psychiatric landscape. Detailed discussions of the roots of alcoholism and infidelity are juxtaposed with the first comprehensive critiques of Zelda's diverse artistic accomplishments as a dancer, short story writer, essayist and novelist. This is an evocative portrayal of a talented woman's professional and emotional conflicts, a story with as much relevance today as it had half a century ago.
Customer Reviews:
A great introduction to Zelda..........2006-08-23
I had to do some research on Zelda for an art exhibit and really knew nothing about her except that she was the "wife of FSF". However, after reading this book, I have added her to my "ultimate dinner party guest list"! She seemed like a fascinating person (no matter what ones opinion of her might be). From what little I knew of her, I had associated her with NYC so I truly enjoyed learning about her Southern belle heritage, and although I am middle aged, from what I know about my grandmother's (and mother's) life as Southern women, I could totally relate to her youth. And what woman hasn't fantasized about the glory days of the flapper era and the jazz age? So that was quite interesting as well. And as someone who had dreamt forever of traveling to Europe (and have fortunately finally been), I loved reading about their bi-continent lives. This book definitely whet my appetite to learn more about such an interesting person who, in my opinion, seemed to be ahead of her time.
ZSF: An American Woman's Life.......2005-09-08
An antecedent to the 1970's "Zelda" by Milford, ZSF:An American Woman's Life, shows Zelda against the backdrop of a feminism which exploded during and after World War I. Zelda is characterized as more than a Southern belle, as if this were the whole and sum of the parts of her; she is depicted as a woman who wanted to marry "and have all the nice old safe things" yet she wanted a place in the world where she could write, act, paint and dance, areas in which she excelled, without the interference of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It's a good read and a decades-later follow up to Milford's biography of Zelda.
A life in the margins.......2005-06-09
Zelda Fitzgerald will always be known as the `wife of' F. Scott Fitzgerald and not, as her husband was, a writer, despite the best attempts of any biographer.
I found author Linda Wagner-Martin's biography less an indictment of F. Scott and more one of a Southern belle system that trivialized, sexualized and indoctrinated women in a life that emphasized their desirability and motherhood at the expense of any other gifts or talents. Wagner-Martin has the right argument but reaches the wrong conclusions and so I rated this interesting work three stars.
Wagner-Martin shows how Zelda willingly played into these roles in her young life, seeing it was a way out of her parents' house (although she returns there time and again), only to later realize that they had firmly entrapped her as a married adult. Neither she nor Scott could break that dynamic largely at her expense. Even their daughter Scottie described her mother as a willing victim, a perspective that was conveniently left out of this work.
At the same time Zelda was obsessing over her marginal status to the brink of mental instability, women like Zora Neale Hurston and Agatha Christie were overcoming fierce financial odds and social/sexist obstacles to accomplish their artistic visions.
At the end of the day all that really matters is the work one leaves behind. That `body' of work can take on greater meaning and relevance than what remains of its creator. Frankly, focusing on Zelda's personality only serves to further marginalize her and what little work she did produce.
Brings tears to my eyes........2005-05-17
I was very surprised to see just one review on Amazon of this wonderful biography. This is the first review I have written here. I always check out what readers have to say about books I have read or intend to read. So I was really looking forward to a lot of stimulating feedback. That being said, I guess I will put in my two cents. This truly is the story of an American woman. And that is why I think it is so relevant to every woman living in American society today. Wagner-Martin does an exemplary job of illustrating how the genius and talent of woman can become neutralized through the weight and burden of early conditioning. Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was a creature screaming and yearning to differentiate herself from the overpowering presence of her talented and lauded husband. The awful tragedy is that this intense passion to become her own person was so grossly misconstrued as mental illness. It is tough reading. My heart so went out to Zelda. Yet I can't help but recognize that woman today still has an uphill battle in a society that has yet to relinquish it's paternalistic tendencies and endemic misogny. I can't recommend enough this amazing study of a woman so ahead of her time, yet so crushed under the force of circumstance. The one hopeful note I can offer is that from it women readers can feel galvanized to act as individuals independent of convention and impulse and need and rise beyond the circumscribed roles imposed upon us. If only Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, as well as that tragic icon, Marilyn Monroe, could have lived long enough to see how far we have come in the battle for the rights of woman. But we have these beautiful women to look back upon to recognize the distance travelled. I guess that is something to be thankful for.
A couple of wasted lives .......2005-04-25
I knew something of the story of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, but after reading this book I think that Scott is the one who needed therapy.
I can't believe he accused Zelda of stealing material from him. After all, it was her life. I'm sorry that she could not break away from him.
I found it interesting to read about the amount of money he was paid and how they spent it all. He probably realized he wasn't going to live to be old.
Book Description
Through his alcoholism and her mental illness, his career lows and her institutional confinement, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's devotion to each other endured for over twenty-two years. Now, for the first time, we have the story of their love in the couple's own letters. Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda consists of more than 75 percent previously unpublished or out-of-print letters as well as extensive narrative on the Fitzgeralds' marriage by Fitzgerald scholars Jackson R. Bryer and Cathy W. Barks. Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda features black-and-white and color photographs, and a candid introduction by Eleanor Lanahan, the Fitzgeralds' granddaughter.
Customer Reviews:
A Fantastic Collection of Literary Love Letters .......2005-12-02
Once I opened this book of F. Scott and Zelda's love letters, I was glued to it, and didn't put it down until I had read the entire book 6 hours later. This is an engrossing collection of passionate letters between two of America's most famous Jazz Age babies, full of innocence, spurned hope, desperate longing, and a never-ending belief that one day, somehow, they would end up together again. Even knowing the Fitzgeralds' history as well as I do, I was drawn in by their steamy letters, and half-believed that everything was going to turn out alright in the end for them. Maybe it did. This is a fantastic, epic collection of letters (more by Zelda than Scott), photos (I loved seeing the presents that Scott gave to Zelda), drawings, and copies of the original letters. F. Scott had such beautiful handwriting. Anyways, for anyone with even a slight interest in the Fitzgeralds, or in love letters, this is a book well worth its price, one that I thought about for days after I finished it off.
Mediocre.......2003-12-10
I'm fascinated by Fitzgerald and was truly looking forward to reading this book, what I thought would be an exchange between F. Scott and Zelda, as its title indicates.
But, the book is almost entirely Zelda's writing. Zelda didn't keep many of Scott's letters, so they aren't here, and apparently his letters to other people are found in other books - not that they "belong" here, necessarily, but I would have liked to hear from Scott himself. For example, Zelda in the hospital: letters from Zelda to Scott are here. Scott clearly is doing things during these periods - including writing letters to hospital staff *about* Zelda's treatment (these letters, I believe, are in Bruccoli's book, F. Scott Fitgerald's Life In Letters).
Much of Scott's thoughts, therefore, are left to the imagination. He's in California at times; he's drinking; he's with their child. Since this book is about their relationship as told through letters--i.e., their own words and thoughts--I wanted his too.
So, I found it rather one-sided and its title misleading. Had I known I wasn't going to read a relationship in letters I may have had a different response. It's absolutely interesting to read Zelda's thoughts and we certainly understand much of their situation through reading this book. So, for what it is, it's interesting. But, for what it purports to be, it's lacking.
Portrait of a Marriage.......2002-12-11
This is a vivid, moving portrait of a marriage told in the couple's own words to one another. While biographer and commentators on the Fitzgeralds and their period have provided their own interpretations of the most famous exemplars of the Jazz Age, Breyer and Barks have chosen to let the protagonists speak for themselves and to each other. The result is a look at two human beings struggling to find their identities, define their relationship, and establish their place in the world relative to one another. That they only partially succeeded but never stopped trying is what makes this collection of their letters compelling reading.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know what the world looked like to those living in, and often trapped in, its confines.
Just not interested.......2002-09-08
I really tried to get into the letters of Scott and Zelda. I thought it would broaden my knowledge of this artistic couple and help me to understand their work. I tried. I failed. I just could not get interested in Zelda's shallow world of parties and dances. I tried skipping to the meatier stuff later in her life; still could not quite muster up the empathy needed to relate to this woman. Her life was no doubt tragic and sad, but I was not moved. Perhaps it is heresy to say, but I still am not convinced F Scott is the great American novelist he is marketed to be; the letters in this book did not keep my attention long enough to desire to get to know them better.
Book Description
Irresistibly charming, recklessly brilliant, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald epitomized everything that was beautiful and damned about the Jazz Age. But behind the legend, there was a highly complex and competitive marriage–a union not of opposites but almost of twins who both inspired and tormented each other, and who were ultimately destroyed by their shared fantasies. Now in this frank, stylish, superbly written new book, Kendall Taylor tells the story of the Fitzgerald marriage as it has never been told before.
Following the success of Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, Scott and Zelda took New York by storm. Scott was recognized as the greatest American author of the twenties and everyone was fascinated with Zelda, his ravishing young wife, known as the model for all his flapper heroines. Ultimately it all fell apart, and Kendall Taylor tells us why. Drawing on previously suppressed material, including crucial medical records, Taylor sheds fresh light on Zelda’s depths and mysteries–her rich but largely unrealized artistic talents, her own ambitions that were unfulfilled because she was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, her passionate love affairs. Zelda’s contribution to Scott’s fiction, which was based on her diaries, her letters, and her life, was her only great achievement–and for that she may have paid the terrible price of her own sanity.
In Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom, Kendall Taylor has created the definitive Fitzgerald biography. Written with sympathy, original insight, and dazzling style–and featuring memorable appearances from Edmund Wilson, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway, among others–this is a stunning portrait of a marriage, an age, and a fabulous but tragic woman.
Customer Reviews:
On "When Madness is Wisdom".......2005-09-08
"When Madness is Wisdom" is an excellent account of the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. While other biographical accounts tend to characterize Zelda as a crazed, selfish woman who kept her husband from writing and encouraged his drinking, the author does not indict Zelda. Rather, she shows how the behavior of each Fitzgerald resulted in a marriage that could have had no other outcome than what it did.
Zelda was broken largely because she had nothing of her own as far as a career and the knowledge that she willingly allowed Scott to use her diaries and ideas for his work. Scott began drinking heavily at Princeton, prior to meeting Zelda and was depicted as a largely insecure person who would have stayed in his cups anyway. For those who are seeking a biographical account of the Fitzgerald's marriage that is fair to both of them, "Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom" is a great read and encourages further study.
Rambling Wisdom.......2004-06-24
I am impressed with Kendall Taylor's supreme effort in writing this book. She has invested a great deal of her life, some thirty years, in researching all the material. It is a very interesting biography, but it seems she tries to do too much. There are so many details of the Fitzgeralds' friends and contemporaries that one gets bogged down in details. There are many repetitions of facts, and areas where one sees poor editing and sentence structure errors. It would appear that the author spent too much time on the book, and therefore its presentation is somewhat disjointed and disorganized. I would have preferred to see more emphasis on Zelda herself, instead of anecdotes regarding her frivolous lifestyle.
A Tragedy Worthy of Shakespeare.......2003-07-24
As an English major in college, I was required to reach much of F. Scott Fitzgerald, most particularly "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender Is the Night." And like many others of my ilk, I fell madly in love with the legend that was the Fitzgeralds. I went on to read everything I could get my hands on, from Scott's collected short stories to "The Beautiful and the Damned" to "This Side of Paradise" to the tragically unfinished "The Last Tycoon."
Through all of my Fitzgerald worship, I viewed Zelda as an "also-ran"--the madcap flapper, the passionate spouse and lover, the quintessential "roaring 20s girl," the great beauty who was her husband's muse-until she went crazy. I never took her seriously as an artist in her own right, and why should I have done so? Certainly until recent years, no biography of Fitzgerald painted her that way, and I found the few biographies of Zelda opinionated and suspect.
Now, with a fascinating work that took author Kendall Taylor 30 years (!!) to write, the tragedy that was Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald finally comes to light as never before. And for the first time, I realize that the incredibly brilliant prose that made up Scott's novels was often lifted VERBATIM from Zelda's most intimate and personal diaries, which Scott viewed as his own property, to be purloined at will. I find that some of his most cunning and original turn of phrase was taken VERBATIM from Zelda's unique, brilliant, colorful, and wholly her own way of speaking (probably, in fact, a precurser of the schizophrenia that was to overtake her). I find that Scott was so possessive of Zelda as his SOURCE that he actively forbade her to write on her own, although she showed great talent. He went so far as to write long letters to her various doctors forbidding them to allow her to write, and they agreed to do so! A highly creative, completely unique human being, Zelda was thwarted at every turn, whether her painting (which Scott ridiculed) her sad attempts to become a prima ballerina (equally ridiculed and the final step to her first breakdown) to anything else she attempted to do.
Scott, a difficult, vain, selfish and jealous human being, viewed Zelda as more than his lover and wife, as more than his helpmate and muse. He felt he owned the very words that fell from her mouth, and strongly resisted any attempt on her part to express herself apart from him, feeling that their mutual story belonged to him and him alone, as the novelist and breadwinner.
We all know the end of the story. Scott died much too young of heart disease and TB brought on by acute alcoholism. Zelda, in and out of mental hospitals from her late twenties on, died in a horrible fire at the institution where she was housed. These two bright flames, these two icons of The Jazz Age, these two physically gorgeous people, the flapper and her swain, were doomed from the start. But until the recent death of their only daughter, Scottie Lanahan, many of their papers, letters, diaries, and so forth, remained unavailable to the public. Taylor was given unprecedented access to these, and tells her tale in as objective a way as she can, given her subject matter. One must commend Ms. Taylor for her Herculean efforts and her fascinating story. Unfortunately, like many authors of today, she has fallen victim to the same bad editing that plagues most paperbacks in today's marketplace. Therefore, the paperback version of this book (which is the version I read) is plagued by silly grammatical mistakes and typos that Scott OR Zelda would have noticed. It isn't fair to Taylor, but so be it. Suffice to say that, upon reading the very last sentence of the very last page, I broke into sobs. I now wish to go on and read Zelda's collected works (available from Amazon!), view all her artwork (ditto) and reread Scott's works-from the viewpoint of all I know now. I commend Ms. Taylor on a simply brilliant job.
A Satisfying Biography.......2003-02-07
Although quite academic and not an 'easy read', I enjoyed reading 'Sometimes Madness is Wisdom'. It has generated in me an interest to discover more about Zelda Fitzgerald which appeals to me personally, however, I do understand that some readers would find this biography frustrating in the way it leaves some questions unanswered. I think perhaps the author has set herself one goal and gotten caught up in another - ie. her introduction promises to reveal more of Zelda herself than her husband. What results is more an analysis of the marriage, as the subtitle indicates, but as a result neither Zelda nor the marriage are completely exposed. I certainly would not discourage anyone from reading 'Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom' because of this dichotomy. I would make two recommendations: 1)That this title will appeal to readers with an interest in history and/or literature as an academic pursuit more than readers of pop-bios 2) Wait for the paperback!
Disappointing Ramble.......2003-01-04
Although the author, Kendall Taylor, begins her biography with a disdainful look at how all biographies of Zelda are about F. Scott Fitzgerald, she proceeds to do the same thing, badly.
Not only does she discuss the friendship between the Fitzgerald's and the Hemingways. she also discuss all of their friends, enemies and the possible lovers of these same friends and enemies.
There is nothing new. The biography is not well written, which I generally expect from a English professor (too self-involved.} Beside the mediocre writing, the proofing is terrible, as is the editing--if there was any--leaving mistakes and errors galore.
If the reader is interested in Zelda and her descent into madness and what happened after Scott died, chose another book. I'm sorry I wasted the time and money on this one.
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- The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: 20th Aniversary Edition
- The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot
- The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World
- The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers
- The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe
- The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Dover Thrift Editions)
- The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Up Country
- Of Rule and Revenue
- O.M.A.R. Study Guide: Online Multimedia Accounting Review
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
- Where is Baby's Mommy
- The directory of software publishers: How and where to sell your program
- Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128
- Reasoning and Method in Economics: An Introduction to Economic Methodology
- Central Rocky Mountain Wildflowers: Including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Zelda: A Biography
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda: An Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald
