Scan barcode
Reviews
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald by Jackson R. Bryer
theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition
5.0
Dear Scott Dearest Zelda
As a lover of memoirs, the description of this book instantly drew me to it. It is one thing to read an author’s carefully selected words of their own life or someone else’s. It is quite different to read personal letters between a loving and also sometimes chaotic couple. While it felt like an intrusion of privacy to read these letters between Scott and Zelda, it was difficult to turn away from them as well. The thoughts of Zelda were often times confusing but always quite beautiful. I was surprised by how much her writing changed throughout their courtship and marriage, especially in the letters during her third breakdown. This book includes over 300 letters between the couple. While the majority of them are from Zelda to Scott, the last part of the book “The Final years,” finally includes regular letters from Scott as well. I must say this was my favorite section. Both of them wrote so well and so caringly, and it was heartbreaking to read the final pages. This is not your everyday recommendation for just anybody but if you are looking for a book that takes a closer look at Scott’s and Zelda’s relationship through their struggles and triumphs or are intrigued by how her mental illness has affected her life, then this is the right book for you.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest review.
As a lover of memoirs, the description of this book instantly drew me to it. It is one thing to read an author’s carefully selected words of their own life or someone else’s. It is quite different to read personal letters between a loving and also sometimes chaotic couple. While it felt like an intrusion of privacy to read these letters between Scott and Zelda, it was difficult to turn away from them as well. The thoughts of Zelda were often times confusing but always quite beautiful. I was surprised by how much her writing changed throughout their courtship and marriage, especially in the letters during her third breakdown. This book includes over 300 letters between the couple. While the majority of them are from Zelda to Scott, the last part of the book “The Final years,” finally includes regular letters from Scott as well. I must say this was my favorite section. Both of them wrote so well and so caringly, and it was heartbreaking to read the final pages. This is not your everyday recommendation for just anybody but if you are looking for a book that takes a closer look at Scott’s and Zelda’s relationship through their struggles and triumphs or are intrigued by how her mental illness has affected her life, then this is the right book for you.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest review.
thelexingtonbookie's review against another edition
4.0
What's more romantic than a love story? A dramatic, tumultuous, and relatively short love story told through the handwritten letters of the 1920s-1930s iconic couple, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
In this compilation, edited by Jackson Bryer and Cathy Barks, the dynamic relationship between Scott and Zelda is explored through a collection of their letters, notes, and telegrams to each other over the course of their relationship.
Starting from when they began dating in 1918, the young couple were clearly in love, and their letters are full of hope and wistful longing for reaching their dreams. In the collection, due to the loss of his letters, Scott is mostly communicating through telegrams, but in the mostly all-caps statements, you can tell he is driven as a writer and determined to woo Miss Zelda Sayre. She in return is equally devoted and eager for their marriage, though she does mention her flirtations and dates with other men while Scott is in New York. This is a hint of their underlying jealousies of each other. As time goes on, the success of This Side of Paradise in 1920 spurs the couples nuptials, as well as their launch into the party society in New York City.
Cue all the roaring 1920's imagery, which Scott brought to his novels The Beautiful and the Damned and The Great Gatsby. However, these parties weren't his only inspiration- Scott often used lines and themes from his letters to Zelda for his work. However, this is also where boundaries and lines were being crossed, and we start to see problems develop in their relationship. Scott and Zelda struggled financially from the 1920's to the mid-1930s, trying to keep up with their grand lifestyle, and eventually moving to Europe where the dollar was much stronger in the exchange rate. This is also where Scott's alcoholism becomes evident, and where Zelda's mental state started to wain. The letters from this period show the fissures in the relationship, even though the couple still remain desperately determined to support and love each other.
From there, the letters display the dissolution of this couple- torn apart more by their illnesses than anything else. Through it all, their letters remained a constant communication of honesty, love, and resolution. Also, coming from two writers, they are wonderfully periodic, clever, charming, descriptive, and animated. Their letters are windows to those outside their relationship, and to have them arranged and annotated as the editors did offers the reader a wonderful insight and understanding that would have been missed based on the less intimate, public persona of this couple.
I've truly enjoyed Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda, and will certainly be recommending it to my historical memoir fans.
In this compilation, edited by Jackson Bryer and Cathy Barks, the dynamic relationship between Scott and Zelda is explored through a collection of their letters, notes, and telegrams to each other over the course of their relationship.
Starting from when they began dating in 1918, the young couple were clearly in love, and their letters are full of hope and wistful longing for reaching their dreams. In the collection, due to the loss of his letters, Scott is mostly communicating through telegrams, but in the mostly all-caps statements, you can tell he is driven as a writer and determined to woo Miss Zelda Sayre. She in return is equally devoted and eager for their marriage, though she does mention her flirtations and dates with other men while Scott is in New York. This is a hint of their underlying jealousies of each other. As time goes on, the success of This Side of Paradise in 1920 spurs the couples nuptials, as well as their launch into the party society in New York City.
Cue all the roaring 1920's imagery, which Scott brought to his novels The Beautiful and the Damned and The Great Gatsby. However, these parties weren't his only inspiration- Scott often used lines and themes from his letters to Zelda for his work. However, this is also where boundaries and lines were being crossed, and we start to see problems develop in their relationship. Scott and Zelda struggled financially from the 1920's to the mid-1930s, trying to keep up with their grand lifestyle, and eventually moving to Europe where the dollar was much stronger in the exchange rate. This is also where Scott's alcoholism becomes evident, and where Zelda's mental state started to wain. The letters from this period show the fissures in the relationship, even though the couple still remain desperately determined to support and love each other.
From there, the letters display the dissolution of this couple- torn apart more by their illnesses than anything else. Through it all, their letters remained a constant communication of honesty, love, and resolution. Also, coming from two writers, they are wonderfully periodic, clever, charming, descriptive, and animated. Their letters are windows to those outside their relationship, and to have them arranged and annotated as the editors did offers the reader a wonderful insight and understanding that would have been missed based on the less intimate, public persona of this couple.
I've truly enjoyed Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda, and will certainly be recommending it to my historical memoir fans.
charlottereed's review
3.0
I only read the first section of this book - but it is a wonderful reference to his published novels. There are whole sections in Zelda's letters to Scott, that he took and put in This Side of Paradise.
cssquared's review against another edition
4.0
I received Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is pure history, in possibly one of the most poetic forms possible. The letters that Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald wrote to each other are stunning. Their emotions are spilled on the page in a way I expect could not be created by any lesser authors. Their relationship is a great tragedy that even they felt necessary to fictionalize, and so reading through it is as easy as a novel. The minimal notes do just enough to allow the reader an entire picture of their lives at the time of each letter. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get to know these characters, the impact of mental illness, or get a personal picture of history.
kelseyjobrien's review
5.0
This is a must have for fans of Scott and/or Zelda Fitzgerald. Their letters begin during their courting, and last all the way to the bitter end, where their marriage had essentially fallen apart, but they still had a sense of love for each other. Like their books, their letters were beautifully written and intense, and the readers can see the love they both held for one another. They were consumed by it. As an outsider looking in, it's almost like you feel you're invading their personal and private letters, but I still recommend this for any fans of the Fitzgeralds.
balancinghistorybooks's review
5.0
I am a touch obsessed with the Fitzgeralds at present. Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda is one of the books which I have most looked forward to reading – ever, I think. I spotted it quite by chance in Cambridge Central Library whilst I was browsing the biography section, and may have given a tiny squeal of joy before snapping it up. To add to my excitement, it is also the favourite book of one of my absolute favourite musicians, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.
The letters in Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda have never before been published in the same volume. The informative preface which the editors of the book, Jackson R. Bryer and Cathy W. Bates have penned, states the way in which they have chosen to adopt a chronological approach to present the correspondence of the husband and wife. This is certainly my preferred form for letter collections and works of non-fiction, and it has been used to great effect here.
Elements of biography can be found before each letter, and it is clear that Bryer and Bates have greatly respected the material which they have presented in the volume. So much thought has been put into how the letters are presented, and each section has a nicely written introduction, which sets out the point at which the lives of the Fitzgeralds were in each particular period. Eleanor Lanahan, the granddaughter of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, has written the introduction to Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda, and its inclusion feels so very fitting for a number of reasons. Her words are touching, and it is pleasing that she sets such stock by the work of her grandparents.
Throughout, I felt privileged to be able to read the correspondence of Scott and Zelda. Their letters to one another, even in the more troubled years of their marriage, are just darling. The prose is beautiful, the similes and metaphors gorgeous, and the spontaneity in each and every letter is marvellous. What characters both Scott and Zelda were, and how lucky we are as readers to be able to read their most private of works. I admire the way in which the editors have kept the original spellings and punctuation in the letters. The photographs and facsimiles of letters are a lovely addition to the text too.
The story of Scott and Zelda is often very sad, with Zelda being hospitalised for mental illness during the later years of her life, and Scott’s alcoholism, but their love is always there, no matter which situations they may find themselves in. Love is the enduring factor here, in all of its many forms.
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda is a fascinating collection of correspondence, which continually exemplifies the depths of Scott and Zelda’s love for one another. Many of the letters here were penned by Zelda, and she writes beautifully. Some of the sentences which she crafts are breathtaking and heartfelt, such as this, written in November 1931:
“… if you will come back I will make the jasmine bloom and all the trees come out in flower and we will eat clouds for des[s]ert[,] bathe in the foam of the rain – and I will let you play with my pistol and you can win every golf game and I will make you a new suit from a blue hydrangea bush and shoes from pecan-shells and I’ll sew you a belt from leaves like maps of the world and you can always be the one that’s perfect.”
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda comes highly recommended, and it is certainly a book which I will be purchasing my own copy of in future, so that I can read it all over again.
The letters in Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda have never before been published in the same volume. The informative preface which the editors of the book, Jackson R. Bryer and Cathy W. Bates have penned, states the way in which they have chosen to adopt a chronological approach to present the correspondence of the husband and wife. This is certainly my preferred form for letter collections and works of non-fiction, and it has been used to great effect here.
Elements of biography can be found before each letter, and it is clear that Bryer and Bates have greatly respected the material which they have presented in the volume. So much thought has been put into how the letters are presented, and each section has a nicely written introduction, which sets out the point at which the lives of the Fitzgeralds were in each particular period. Eleanor Lanahan, the granddaughter of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, has written the introduction to Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda, and its inclusion feels so very fitting for a number of reasons. Her words are touching, and it is pleasing that she sets such stock by the work of her grandparents.
Throughout, I felt privileged to be able to read the correspondence of Scott and Zelda. Their letters to one another, even in the more troubled years of their marriage, are just darling. The prose is beautiful, the similes and metaphors gorgeous, and the spontaneity in each and every letter is marvellous. What characters both Scott and Zelda were, and how lucky we are as readers to be able to read their most private of works. I admire the way in which the editors have kept the original spellings and punctuation in the letters. The photographs and facsimiles of letters are a lovely addition to the text too.
The story of Scott and Zelda is often very sad, with Zelda being hospitalised for mental illness during the later years of her life, and Scott’s alcoholism, but their love is always there, no matter which situations they may find themselves in. Love is the enduring factor here, in all of its many forms.
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda is a fascinating collection of correspondence, which continually exemplifies the depths of Scott and Zelda’s love for one another. Many of the letters here were penned by Zelda, and she writes beautifully. Some of the sentences which she crafts are breathtaking and heartfelt, such as this, written in November 1931:
“… if you will come back I will make the jasmine bloom and all the trees come out in flower and we will eat clouds for des[s]ert[,] bathe in the foam of the rain – and I will let you play with my pistol and you can win every golf game and I will make you a new suit from a blue hydrangea bush and shoes from pecan-shells and I’ll sew you a belt from leaves like maps of the world and you can always be the one that’s perfect.”
Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda comes highly recommended, and it is certainly a book which I will be purchasing my own copy of in future, so that I can read it all over again.
sean31's review
5.0
What I love about a well-written autobiography is that it takes someone larger-than-life and turns them into a real, accessible person, that you feel like you get to know. Obviously, this is no autobiography, not really, but it causes the same effect. These were real people, who laughed and cried, who reached incredible heights, only to fall from them.
But they are real, and they are beautiful. Anyone who has ever been in love will recognize their own heart in these pages, their own story. Genuine empathy and sympathy spills forth, as these two put feelings into words like no one else possibly could.
Of course, this is not merely a bound stack of letters, but is lovingly narrated by scholars Bryer and Barks, whose work puts the lives of the pair in order, and the letters into context. Their notes are thorough, yet concise, and the book would not be the same without their efforts.
I highly recommend this for fans of the Fitzgeralds or their work, and indeed to anyone who has ever loved.
But they are real, and they are beautiful. Anyone who has ever been in love will recognize their own heart in these pages, their own story. Genuine empathy and sympathy spills forth, as these two put feelings into words like no one else possibly could.
Of course, this is not merely a bound stack of letters, but is lovingly narrated by scholars Bryer and Barks, whose work puts the lives of the pair in order, and the letters into context. Their notes are thorough, yet concise, and the book would not be the same without their efforts.
I highly recommend this for fans of the Fitzgeralds or their work, and indeed to anyone who has ever loved.
mina's review
3.0
Most of Scott’s letters from the beginning/middle years of their marriage were lost, which made reading less enjoyable because I had to guess what Scott said based on Zelda’s writings. I do think Zelda is a wonderful writer though, and some of her descriptions about nature were very colorful and dreamy.