Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: An American Woman's Life

By Linda Wagner-Martin

Book Overview

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was born at the dawn of the twentieth century, destined for celebrity as one half of the infamous darlings of the Jazz Age literary world.

For the first time, Zelda's story is told from her own perspective rather than through the lens of her famous husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A southern belle from Montgomery, Alabama, Fitzgerald epitomized the "New Woman" of the modern era in New York and Paris, all the while living on the edge of a nervous breakdown. With a wealth of new information from the Princeton archives, author Linda Wagner-Martin vividly illustrates Zelda's psychological landscape, from the roots of her alcoholism to her enviable artistic gifts and achievements: novels, essays, short stories, ballet and even painting.

This is a riveting and provocative portrayal of a talented woman's professional and emotional conflicts, as relevant today as half a century ago.

Praise for Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald:

'Wagner-Martin has done more research into the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and brought greater intelligence to its interpretation than anyone else. ... anyone who wants to understand how it was with Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald will learn a great deal from this book' - Scott Donaldson, author of Hemingway vs Fitzgerald

'Thought-provoking and illuminating' - Dale Spender, author of Man Made Language

'Linda Wagner-Martin changes our image of Zelda from devil-may-care flapper to Southern Belle, from lunatic to professional woman, from hysteric to talented writer. This cultural biography at long last helps us to locate Zelda within an unfolding history of American women's social, sexual, and artistic practices.' - Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University

Linda Wagner-Martin has won teaching awards at Michigan State University and UNC. She is currently the president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Among her fifty edited and written books are biographies of Sylvia Plath, Gertrude Stein, Ellen Glasgow, Barbara Kingsolver, and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1839013826
• ISBN13: 9781839013829
• Release Date: March 2022
• Publisher: Lume Books
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A great introduction to Zelda...

I had to do some research on Zelda for an art exhibit and really knew nothing about her except that she was the "wife of FSF". However, after reading this book, I have added her to my "ultimate dinner party guest list"! She seemed like a fascinating person (no matter what ones opinion of her might be). From what little I knew of her, I had associated her with NYC so I truly enjoyed learning about her Southern belle heritage, and although I am middle aged, from what I know about my grandmother's (and mother's) life as Southern women, I could totally relate to her youth. And what woman hasn't fantasized about the glory days of the flapper era and the jazz age? So that was quite interesting as well. And as someone who had dreamt forever of traveling to Europe (and have fortunately finally been), I loved reading about their bi-continent lives. This book definitely whet my appetite to learn more about such an interesting person who, in my opinion, seemed to be ahead of her time.

ZSF: An American Woman's Life

An antecedent to the 1970's "Zelda" by Milford, ZSF:An American Woman's Life, shows Zelda against the backdrop of a feminism which exploded during and after World War I. Zelda is characterized as more than a Southern belle, as if this were the whole and sum of the parts of her; she is depicted as a woman who wanted to marry "and have all the nice old safe things" yet she wanted a place in the world where she could write, act, paint and dance, areas in which she excelled, without the interference of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's a good read and a decades-later follow up to Milford's biography of Zelda.

A couple of wasted lives

I knew something of the story of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, but after reading this book I think that Scott is the one who needed therapy. I can't believe he accused Zelda of stealing material from him. After all, it was her life. I'm sorry that she could not break away from him. I found it interesting to read about the amount of money he was paid and how they spent it all. He probably realized he wasn't going to live to be old.