This Side of Paradise

Because while he is literally in the middle of this grueling blue-collar reality, the letter finally arrives.

Scribner's accepts his debut novel, This Side of Paradise.

The golden rope drops again.

It really does.

when you're in that formative stage of life.

I think one book that for some reason really resonated with me was This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I know a lot of people come across The Great Gatsby-

Mm-hmm

Seriously.

Father Fay actually becomes the direct inspiration for Monsignor Darcy in Scott's debut novel, This Side of Paradise.

Which just shows you how deeply Fay penetrated Scott's psyche.

Totally.

So with his spiritual anchor gone, he replaces the altar with a typewriter.

He takes all that pain from the Ginevra King rejection, all the anxiety from his St. Paul childhood, and he pours it into a manuscript.

And on March 26, 1920, This Side of Paradise is published.

The explosion is instantaneous.

Born in Minnesota, he attended Princeton University before joining the Army.

He achieved instant success with his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which allowed him to marry Zelda Sayre with the money he earned.

His masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, 1925, explored themes of wealth, ambition, and the collapse of the American dream.

Despite his talent, Fitzgerald struggled with alcoholism and financial problems later in life.

He mentored F. Scott Fitzgerald.

If you look at, um, "This Side of Paradise," it's dedicated to Sigourney Fay.

And eventually he became the namesake for Sigourney Weaver, because Sigourney Weaver took her name from reading "The Great Gatsby." And Fitzgerald used the name Sigourney in The Great Gatsby, Mrs.

Sigourney Howard.

In 1919, he takes that previously rejected manuscript, The Romantic Egotist.

He completely revises it, polishes it, and submits it under a new title, This Side of Paradise.

And this time, it is accepted.

accepted.But it's not just published, it becomes an absolute cultural phenomenon.

It blew up.

When This Side of Paradise hits the shelves, it captures the post-war disillusionment and the restless, rebellious energy of the youth perfectly.

It turns Fitzgerald into an overnight sensation.

And guess who suddenly comes right back into the picture?

Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting absurdly that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame.

Her father is deeply unimpressed, but after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

Z: The Beginning of Everything was released between 2015 and 2017, and it follows the story of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, a brilliant and beautiful Southern belle who became the original flapper and icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age.

So I wanna say right off the bat, Z the novel, I was...

Me, too, sweetheart.

Let us lose ourselves in our work, me in this cheap novel you were reading and you in the merry chatter of that 1906 model Oliver.

Scoot.

[instrumental music]

Because by this time, Fitzgerald was already a massive cultural figure.

He had published This Side of Paradise.

He was basically the undisputed laureate of the Jazz Age.

Right.