One of the more interesting books I've read is the collection of Fitzgerald's letters edited by Matthew Broccoli. Fitzgerald actually becomes quite a moralist as he gets older, which people find surprising, given the usual portrayal of him as a hard-partying drunk.

What people miss about Fitzgerald is that while he is one of the voices for The Lost Generation, he never really approves of their behavior -- there is, under all his cynical veneer, a sense of propriety, order, and right and wrong.

Think P.J. O'Rourke as a modern day equivalent.

I don't find it all that surprising. Most great novelists may have had chaotic lives, or were drunks, or womanizers - but most also had a great sense of right and wrong - which is why their books are so powerful. Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Joyce, Faulkner, Melville ... Being a hedonist doesn't necessarily say anything about your moral sense. (Maybe it does more so through the light of our more moralistic time - when we expect our artists to be well-behaved, more's the pity).

Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were the babes of the jazz age. They lived life spontaneously, messily - and they both paid huge prices for it (perhaps she paid more heavily since she was mentally ill).

I love Fitzgerald. Love his writing.

I felt like I had discovered a small gold mine when I tripped over this letter to his daughter.