Flappers and Philosophers

1920 story collection by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Flappers and Philosophers

The cover of the 1920 first edition

Author| F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cover artist| W. E. Hill
Language| English
Genre| Short stories
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardcover & paperback)
ISBN| 978-1406509564

Flappers and Philosophers is a collection of eight short stories by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Each of the stories had originally appeared, independently, in either The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's Magazine, or The Smart Set.[1][2]

The volume includes "The Ice Palace", regarded as one of Fitzgerald's finest short works.[3]

## Stories

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The original periodical publication and date are indicated.[4][5]

* "The Offshore Pirate" (The Saturday Evening Post, May 1, 1920)[6]
* "The Ice Palace"(The Saturday Evening Post, May 22, 1920)
* "Head and Shoulders" (The Saturday Evening Post), February 19, 1920
* "The Cut-Glass Bowl" (Scribner's Magazine), May 1920
* "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (The Saturday Evening Post), May 1, 1920)
* "Benediction" (The Smart Set, February 1920)
* "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong" (The Smart Set, February 1920)
* "The Four Fists" (Scribner's Magazine, June 1920)

## Background

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The stories published in Nassau Literary Review while Fitzgerald was attending Princeton University, as well as those that comprise Flappers and Philosophers, may be placed among his "apprenticeship fiction."[7][8]

In November 1919, Fitzgerald engaged Harold Ober as his literary agent. By early 1920, Ober had negotiated the sale of six of Fitzgerald's stories to The Saturday Evening Post, one of several "high-paying mass-circulation slick-paper magazines". Fitzgerald was paid $400 for each story.[9][10] Fitzgerald's short fiction became identified with the Post in the following years, to whom he would sell sixty-five of his stories—"40 percent of his output."[9]

Literary critic and biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli notes that "during his lifetime, Fitzgerald was far better known and more widely read as a short story writer than as a novelist."[9]

## Reception

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F. Scott Fitzgerald c. 1920.

The New York Times in its September 26, 1920 edition evaluated the collection in light of Fitzgerald's recently published first novel This Side of Paradise (1920): "[H]is eight short stories range the gamut of style and mood with a brilliance, a jeu perle ["pearly tone"], so to speak, which is not to be found in the novel."[11] The reviewer compares the works favorably to the "Russian school" and to the American author O. Henry, and closes by commending "Mr. Fitzgerald's talent and genius."[11]

## Themes

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Literary critic and biographer John Kuehl reports that the book reflects the social types identified in the collection's title:

> Diverse characters and classes manifest themselves, yet Fitzgerald's fundamentally bourgeois world features the ubiquitous homme manqué and the femme fatale, for courtship and marriage comprise the all-important sexual element.[12]

## References

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### Citations

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1. ^ Bryer 2000, p. 1069.
2. ^ Eble 1963, p. 54: The collection was published on September 10, 1920
3. ^ Eble 1963, p. 56: "...as good a story as Fitzgerald ever wrote...clearly his best" of the stories in the collection.
4. ^ Kuehl 1991, p. 184, Selected Bibliography.
5. ^ Bryer 2000, p. 1069, Notes on the Texts.
6. ^ Bruccoli 1998, p. 89: Bruccoli reports the date as May 29, 1920 in epigraph.
7. ^ Kuehl 1991, p. 25: The stories, written between 1915 and 1921 "...like the author's prep-school efforts, may be said to comprise his apprenticeship fiction."
8. ^ Bryer 2000, pp. 1059–1060, Chronology.
9. ^ a b c Bruccoli 1998, p. 15.
10. ^ Bryer 2000, p. 1061: Chronology: Fitzgerald paid "$400 for each of them."
11. ^ a b The New York Times 1920.
12. ^ Kuehl 1991, pp. 26, 32: "...a book focused on its two title-figure types..."

### Sources

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* Bruccoli, Matthew J., ed. (1998). "Preface". The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84250-5 - via Internet Archive.
* Bryer, Jackson R. (2000). "Chronology and Notes". F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories, 1920-1922. New York: Library of America. pp. 1057–1071\. ISBN 1-883011-84-1 - via Internet Archive.
* Eble, Kenneth E. (1963). F. Scott Fitzgerald. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. LCCN 63-10953 - via Internet Archive.
* Fitzgerald, F. Scott (2000). F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories, 1920-1922. New York: Library of America. ISBN 1-883011-84-1 - via Internet Archive.
* "Flappers". The New York Times. New York City. September 26, 1920.
* Kuehl, John (1991). Weaver, Gordon (ed.). F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-8332-6 - via Internet Archive.

## External links

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* Works related to Flappers and Philosophers at Wikisource
* An omnibus collection of Fitzgerald's short fiction, including Flappers and Philosophers at Standard Ebooks
*   * Flappers and Philosophers at Project Gutenberg
* Flappers and Philosophers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921 (reprint). Scanned book from Internet Archive.
* Flappers and Philosophers public domain audiobook at LibriVox

* v
* t
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F. Scott Fitzgerald

Bibliography

Novels|

* This Side of Paradise (1920)
* The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
* The Great Gatsby (1925)
* Tender Is the Night (1934)
* The Last Tycoon (1941, unfinished)

Short story
collections|

| Flappers and Philosophers (1920)|

* "The Offshore Pirate"
* "The Ice Palace"
* "Head and Shoulders"
* "The Cut-Glass Bowl"
* "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"
* "Benediction"

|

Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)|

* "The Lees of Happiness"
* "May Day"
* The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
* "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

All the Sad Young Men (1926)|

* "The Rich Boy"
* "Winter Dreams"
* "The Baby Party"
* "Absolution"
* "The Adjuster"

Taps at Reveille (1935)|

* "The Freshest Boy"
* "First Blood"
* "Crazy Sunday"
* "Babylon Revisited"

Posthumous works|

* Babylon Revisited and Other Stories (1960)
* The Pat Hobby Stories (1962)
* The Basil and Josephine Stories (1973)
* The Price Was High (1979)
* The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1989)

The Saturday Evening Post|

* "Myra Meets His Family" (1920)
* "The Bridal Party" (1930)
* "One Trip Abroad" (1930)
* "A New Leaf" (1931)

Plays|

* The Vegetable (1923)

Screenplays|

* Three Comrades (1938)
* A Yank at Oxford (1938)

Essay collections|

* The Crack-Up (1945)

Portrayals|

* Beloved Infidel (1959 film)
* F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles' (1974 film)
* F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1975 film)
* Zelda (1993 film)
* Last Call (2002 film)
* The Pursuit of Persephone (2005 musical)
* Waiting for the Moon (2005 musical)
* Midnight in Paris (2011 film)
* Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015 series)
* Genius (2016 film)

People|

* Zelda Fitzgerald (wife)
* Frances Scott Fitzgerald (daughter)
* Ginevra King (literary model)
* Max Gerlach (literary model)
* Maxwell Perkins (literary editor)
* Matthew J. Bruccoli (scholarly editor)

Related|

* F. Scott Fitzgerald House

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