Scott Donaldson: 1928-2020

 

Scott Donaldson, author and literary biographer, 1928-2020.

My collection of books by Scott Donaldson. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Scott Donaldson's excellent biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fool For Love, 1983. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Scott Donaldson's inscription to me: "For Mark Taylor, who likes the same kind of great writing I do-as he and I will continue to try to do-Scott Donaldson 26 June 2017." (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Acclaimed literary biographer Scott Donaldson died on December 1^st, at the age of 92. Donaldson was most well-known for his work on F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and he also wrote biographies of John Cheever and Archibald MacLeish, among others. I reviewed Donaldson’s excellent biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fool For Love, and I also reviewed his book Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship.

I met Scott Donaldson in 2017, at the 14^th International F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Conference, held in Saint Paul, Minnesota. But I had been aware of his work for 20 years before that. When I was in high school, I started reading The Stories of John Cheever, and I was awestruck at the beautiful sentences and sharp precision of Cheever’s writing. My discovery of Cheever’s writing led me to Scott Donaldson’s 1988 biography of Cheever, which I found in some discount bookstore at an outlet mall. (Remember outlet malls?) I read bits and pieces of the Cheever biography, and a couple of years later I discovered that Donaldson and I both attended the same high school, The Blake School. Donaldson was in the class of 1946, and I was in the class of 1999. Finding that connection made me like Donaldson more. Donaldson gave the McDermott Lecture for Fitzgerald in Saint Paul a few years ago, and I was disappointed that I missed it because I had to work that evening.

Scott Donaldson was the very first person that I ran into at the Fitzgerald Conference in 2017. It was Monday morning, and he was walking out of Hotel 340, where the conference was held, and I was walking in. I saw his nametag and said hi to him. I told him that I had enjoyed his books, and I mentioned that we had Blake in common. He told me that he’s always looked back fondly on his time at Blake. Donaldson spoke that afternoon about Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel Tender Is the Night, and he said that his next book would be about Tender. Donaldson’s obituary says that his book about Tender is due for publication. I’ll be looking forward to reading it.

Later during the week of the Fitzgerald conference, I was able to ask Donaldson about his time at Yale University. I knew it was something of a long shot, but I figured I’d ask him if he knew William F. Buckley, since they both graduated from Yale in 1950. When I asked Scott, his face lit up, he laughed and said, “I used to beat him at bridge all the time!” Turns out Scott and his roommate regularly played Buckley and his roommate. I learned from Donaldson’s obituary that it was no surprise he regularly beat Buckley at bridge, as Donaldson was one of the top contract bridge players in the country. Donaldson told me it was obvious even then that Buckley was brilliant.

A further Donaldson, Buckley, and Yale connection: Donaldson wrote a biography of Yale professor Charlie Fenton, who taught a class called “Daily Themes.” The premise of “Daily Themes” was that students had to turn in a piece of descriptive prose, 500-600 words in length, every day of the week, except for Sunday. Buckley had great things to say about the class, even though it made him sweat bullets at the time. Buckley’s 1986 essay “On Writing Speedily,” gives some details on the class, and in the essay, Buckley responds to criticism that he writes his newspaper columns too quickly. (He was known to turn out a column in half an hour.) Needless to say, “Daily Themes” was excellent practice for both Donaldson, who was a newspaper reporter before he got his Ph.D., and Buckley. I told Scott that Buckley had great things to say about “Daily Themes,” and I emailed him Buckley’s essay “On Writing Speedily,” which I don’t believe he had read before.

That’s the extent of my personal relationship with Scott Donaldson. I never saw him in person again after the week of the conference, but I sent him the occasional email, with links to my reviews of his books, and my lengthy review of Tender Is the Night, which was greatly aided by Donaldson’s chapter about the composition of Tender in his book Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days. Donaldson was always kind and supportive in his comments about my writing. As a novice Fitzgerald scholar compared to him, I always appreciated that, and I was always grateful that someone of his stature took the time to read my writing.

Donaldson’s obituary paints a fuller picture of his life, and it certainly reads like a life well-lived.