Business Is Good

Widely regarded as one of America’s great authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald led a life of drama and extravagance that often overshadowed his writing career. This book refocuses attention on how Fitzgerald viewed and approached the business of writing. Fitzgerald scholar James L. W. West III explores the writer’s professional life through personal letters, manuscripts, his business ledger, editions of his novels, and even a “seven-year plan.” In assessing these diverse materials, West reveals fascinating details about what led Fitzgerald to follow authorship as a calling, why he took on certain projects, how he managed his finances, and what influenced his writing style. Connecting Fitzgerald’s career to his literary texts, West also provides new information on the development and publication history of some of Fitzgerald’s most important works, such as The Great Gatsby and Jacob’s Ladder. Throughout, West pays close attention to the delicate balance in Fitzgerald’s career between money and literary respectability, commerce and art.

A keen, engaging, and intimate look at Fitzgerald’s day-to-day work of writing for a living, Business Is Good is a must-have for anyone who wants a better understanding of this American literary giant.

“With diligence, persistence, and precision, West shows his dedication to getting the text right throughout this book, and it will serve as a helpful guide to anyone interested in Fitzgerald’s development as a writer.”—Scott Yarbrough, F. Scott Fitzgerald Review

“[Business Is Good is] understandable to a general audience as well as informative to anyone with an interest in textual editing, the profession of authorship in America, and book history. Without exception, the essays are informative, sophisticated, and accessible.”—Bryant Mangum, Resources for American Literary Study

“Business Is Good demonstrates how much needed to be done in order to produce the Cambridge Edition, and this volume will not be the last contribution to be appreciated from one of America’s preeminent scholarly editors, whose assiduousness, open-mindedness, tact, and honesty have given us the foundational texts of the Cambridge Edition and so much more guiding scholarship to build upon.”—William Blažek, Modern Language Review

“James L. W. West III uses Fitzgerald’s original documents—many of which have never been studied—to illuminate new aspects of the writer's life and career. As a textual scholar, a damned good historicist, and the only person who has examined this archival material in such depth, West is the ideal scholar to write this book.”—Robert W. Trogdon, author of The Lousy Racket: Hemingway, Scribners, and the Business of Literature

“West’s experience editing the Cambridge Edition makes him an authoritative critic of the proliferating editions of Gatsby that followed its entry into the public domain in 2021. His candid discussions of difficult editorial decisions, especially given quirky errors in Fitzgerald’s near-perfect novel, should interest anyone who might have imagined that editing is largely straightforward.”—Michael Nowlin, American Literary History

James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English Emeritus at The Pennsylvania State University. He is a biographer, book historian, and scholarly editor. West has held fellowships from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has had Fulbright appointments in England (at Cambridge University) and in Belgium (at the Université de Liège). From 1994 to 2019, West was the General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, now complete in eighteen volumes, sixteen under his editorship. His variorum edition of The Great Gatsby was the final volume in the series.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Editorial Note

1. Fitzgerald’s Last Triangle “Performance”

2. Fitzgerald and Moran Tudury

3. The Great Gatsby, Broadway 1926

4. Fitzgerald and Psychiatry

5. The Ledger as Autobiography

6. Fitzgerald’s Seven-Year Plan

7. Punctuating by Ear

8. Interpreting “Jacob’s Ladder”

9. Decisions, Decisions: Editing The Great Gatsby

10. Le déluge? New Editions of The Great Gatsby

11. The Cambridge Edition and the Cambridge Plumber

Endpiece: Gatsby Movie (in Skeltonics)

Index

Download a PDF sample chapter here: Chapter1

Biography & Memoir

Literary Studies

           History of the Book

General Interest