Book Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography, Niklas Salmose and David Rennie, Editors (2024)

The cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography, Niklas Salmose and David Rennie, editors, 2024. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

An unusual new biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald was published earlier this year. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography, edited by Niklas Salmose and David Rennie, splits Fitzgerald’s 44-year lifespan into two-year periods. Salmose and Rennie assembled an all-star roster of 23 Fitzgerald scholars to each write a chapter, with the twenty-third chapter covering 1940, the last year of Fitzgerald’s life. It’s a fascinating concept for a biography, and one that works surprisingly well. I wrote a review for the Ramsey County Historical Society, which you can find online here. This piece is a collection of leftover thoughts that I didn't have space for in the review.

The trickiest task falls to the scholars covering Fitzgerald’s earliest years, as there simply isn’t that much material about his very early life. What can you say about 8-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald? But the scholars do an excellent job connecting the patterns of Fitzgerald’s young life to his writings. In particular, Helen Turner, covering the years 1896 and 1897, paints an excellent picture of Fitzgerald’s relationship with his parents. Similarly, Martina Mastandrea does a nice job of covering 1898 and 1899, as the Fitzgerald family moved from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Buffalo, New York.  

Thinking about Fitzgerald’s life in two-year segments is an interesting task. I tend to think of his life in general patterns, but not in such discrete time segments. I didn’t realize until I was reading Jade Broughton Adams’ chapter how little work Fitzgerald did in 1926, when he only wrote two short stories, and was making little progress on his fourth novel. 

There are fascinating little tidbits throughout the book. I was moved by reading Fitzgerald’s reaction to the death of Joseph Conrad, one of his favorite authors. Author Gilbert Seldes was visiting Fitzgerald in France when one morning he found Scott looking off his balcony, towards the sea. Without turning around, Fitzgerald said “Conrad is dead.” (p.240-1) It’s fitting that Scott was gazing out upon a body of water contemplating Conrad’s writing, as Conrad wrote so often of the sea.  

Another fun anecdote is the French writer Andre Chamson’s memory of Fitzgerald showing off his many ties and handkerchiefs and urging the young writer to take one. Shades of Fitzgerald as Jay Gatsby, showing off his shirts for Daisy. (p.278)  

Scott Donaldson gives us the tidbit that Fitzgerald, not known for straying into politics, spoke at an anti-war rally in 1932, although he may have lost the sympathy of his audience when he addressed them as “fellow cranks.” (p.327)  

I was disappointed there was no mention of Fitzgerald’s 1939 break with Harold Ober, his longtime literary agent, when Ober finally refused to lend Fitzgerald any more money. The break was significant in that it ended a twenty-year professional relationship and friendship. But it didn’t have a huge effect on Fitzgerald professionally, as by that time he was only selling his short stories to Esquire magazine, and he was dealing with publisher Arnold Gingrich directly, bypassing Ober.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography is a reminder of the fascinating life that F. Scott Fitzgerald led. Even though the biography comes in at around 400 pages, there is still so much to be said about his life. And that isn’t even mentioning his posthumous literary life, which has seen Fitzgerald lifted into the pantheon of great American authors, where he remains to this day. If you’re interested in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life, go read A Composite Biography, and you’re sure to learn something new about his life and work.