Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is both the bible and exegesis for those who want to study and attempt to better understand F. Scott Fitzgerald, his art, his life, and the century in which he lived. Impeccable scholarship and quite an achievement from Mr. Bruccoli.

I love the hardcover version of this book! Can this be made available for Audible?

I had to order this for my book club because it wasn’t available at my library. Unless you’re a big fan of FSF, you will find it boring. There were some interesting facts about the time period. I enjoyed watching the program about Zelda on Amazon a lot more than this book.

I am an absolute diehard fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, both his life and his literature. So, I knew when I purchased this book I was bound to scrutinize its every nook and cranny. Well, my scrutiny proved to be a wasted effort. Without question, Matthew Bruccoli is the number one Fitzgerald scholar in the country, and after reading this biography, it is impossible to question why.Bruccoli covers every aspect of Fitzgerald's life and includes several bits of correspondence to really give readers a look inside Fitzgerald's thinking. --Perhaps my favorite thing about the book is that it does not sentimentalize the author (which I myself have a habit of doing). Fitzgerald is spelled out here in all his glory, yet, we also get to see his unflattering side...paranoia, arrogance, unharnessed alcoholism, and downright neurosis.F Scott Fitzgerald was a brilliant man whose life became legend. It is my humble opinion that Bruccoli has written the most thorough and best possible biography. Simply put, the read is fascinating. It might be 600 pages, but you will fly through it. It is "never dry" (like Fitzgerald :)) and always entertaining. For Fitzgerald fanatics like myself, this book is a must, but I am convinced that anyone who takes to "human interest" stories would find themselves engulfed in its pages.Also recommended: "The Romantic Egoists"...a scrapbook collection put together concerning the lives of the Fitzgeralds. It is packed with pictures and is a wonderful companion to the biography. It was also published by Bruccoli.

This is a substantive biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald without undue emphasis on any particular phase of his life. It was published in 1981 by the University of South Carolina Press. It is a paperback book, 656 pages long and graced by many well-chosen black-and-white photographs. It is one of only three Fitzgerald biographies recommended by the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society which describes it as the definitive biography of the three. Based on mountains of research, the author reveals Fitzgerald's party- and alcohol-based life as it probably was, but does not use this as a weapon to downgrade Fitzgerald as a writer. My experience with this biography leaves me with the impression that Fitzgerald was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century whose early need to make money writing magazine articles allowed him to be negatively stigmatized and reduced his output of novels to a point that allows some critics to underestimate his legacy.

I've read my fair share of biographies about writers- everyone from Theodore Dreiser to Jean Rhys to the Brontes and Edith Wharton to Hans Christian Anderson- just to name a few. From the obscure to the iconic. This of course is a bio of an iconic writer, but it is not for that reason that it tops my list. I don't know what exactly the magic of this bio is- the author's exhaustive, encyclopedic knowledge of Fitzgerald, his obvious love for his subject, or the magic of Fitzgerald himself. A mixture of all three, probably. If you have any interest in F. Scott, this is the book for you. A page turner that will break your heart.

Bruccolli does an excellent job of blending a scholar's objectivity and a reader's compassion in this fine biography. The sad truth is that Fitzgerald worked and drank himself to death--maybe I should reverse the order of those verbs. I agree with the reviewers who say Bruccoli doesn't pay enough attention to Fitzgerald's short stories, but then, now that I've enjoyed Bruccoli's biography, I can re-read all those stories with a renewed sense of their importance, for they provided 80% of Fitzgerald's income over the years 1920-1936. The income from those stories paid Scott's and Zelda's bills and sometimes bought him enough "free" time to work on his novels.

While there are several biographies of Fitzgerald, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date, especially this second edition. The style of writing flows easily and for those seeking to understand what people and events went into making Fitzgerald the writer, this is the biography for you. The volume contains all of the necessary scholarly apparatus (bibliography, notes, and index) and will serve the Fitzgerald scholar as well as the aficionado.

This is very much a biography of F Scott Fitzgerald the writer, rather than F Scott Fitzgerald the husband, or drunk, or party animal. It is full of fascinating details on how he conceived, planned and composed his work, as well as on the more practical side of his writing life, like his relationship with his publisher, Max Perkins, and agent, Harold Ober, his contracts with publishers and Hollywood studios, earnings and so on.This is a good thing. In hearing so much about what Fizgerald is infamous for, one can overlook the fact that, when he actually got around to working, he was a resourceful, meticulous and highly disciplined professional writer. This book brings that out very well. It's touching, in fact, to see to what pains he went in even the most trivial magazine stories that he had to churn out to keep and Zelda and him in the style of life they required. It's sad as well, of course, because you start to wonder how many Gatsbys he might have written if he had not had to write those stories. But even here the book has something to surprise us, as it shows clearly that he could never have lived on his masterpieces anyway. In 1929, for example, he was earning $4,000 a story but his income from all his novels was something less than $1000 in that year.Unlike many other "definitive" biographies, this book is never too dry, long or detailed. Bruccoli's style is lucid and relaxed but always serious. His tone is pitch perfect, as he modulates between glowing admiration for the author and sorrowful concern for the man - the latter, however, with not a hint of prudish indignation or condescension in it.It is a complete delight from start to finish.

Powerful and moving account of the great American writer Scott Fizgerald. If you are interested in this writer it is worth the read.

I love this book. If like me you are studying one of Fitzgerald's novels then this is a must. Great insight into the author, his life and his writing. Its really wellwritten, a joy to read.Really useful for essays on Fitzgerald's literature e.g. "The Great Gatsby", I got some fab quotes. My copy is second hand,£9.00, it arrived in excellent condition saving me £20.00 on new price.