Afterword by
Matthew J. Bruccoli

Allows today's readers to observe the development of Fitzgerald's great novel.

Limited edition, 500 numbered copies
6 x 24, 64 galley sheets
boxed, ISBN 1-57003-3360-9, $75.00s

ABOUT THE BOOK

In November 1924 F. Scott Fitzgerald sent the typescript for his third novel, tentatively titled "Trimalchio," to his editor, Maxwell Perkins. In the following four months Fitzgerald extensively revised and rewrote the text in galley proof and at the urging of his editor selected a new title for the novel. On April 10, 1925, Charles Scribner's Sons published The Great Gatsby to warm reviews but disappointing sales. In time the work would be recognized as the great American novel and become a staple of high school and college literature courses throughout the country. Published here for the first time is the original version, which permits readers a look at Fitzgerald's progression from a brilliant first draft to a masterpiece.

Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, Trimalchio is a facsimile of the only extant set of the novel's unrevised galley proofs, which are now part of the Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald at the University of South Carolina Library. In his afterword to this version of the text, Bruccoli identifies the sources for the novel's characters and setting, corrects commonly accepted notions about Fitzgerald's revision of the novel, and details the correspondence between Perkins and Fitzgerald about the novel's structure and character development. Comparing the final text of The Great Gatsby with the Trimalchio galleys, Bruccoli reconstructs Fitzgerald's work during the winter of 1924–1925, which included substantial rewriting and reordering of chapters 6, 7, and 8.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Matthew J. Bruccoli, Emily Brown Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, is the leading authority on F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is the author of the standard Fitzgerald biography, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, and the editor or author of twenty other books by or about Fitzgerald.

ALSO FROM THE EDITOR

The Sons of Maxwell Perkins: Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Their Editor
The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner
Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Second Revised Edition
Before Gatsby: The First 26 Short Stories
To Loot My Life Clean: The Thomas Wolfe-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence
The Only Thing That Counts:The Ernest Hemingway-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence
Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!: A Facsimile of the 1914 Acting Script and the Musical Score with Illustrations from the Original Production
Readers Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald on Authorship