Fitzgerald, F. Scott

My Lost City: Personal Essays, 1920-1940 with: Ephemera

ISBN: 0521402395
Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2005. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Inscribed & signed by editor James L.W. West III to George Bornstein & Jane York Bornstein; & with manuscript note from West III to George Bornstein. "Twice during the last decade of his life, in 1934 and 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald proposed a collection of his personal essays to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Charles Scribner's Sons. Perkins was unenthusiastic on both occasions, and Fitzgerald died in 1940 without having put his best essays between hard covers. Fortunately, Fitzgerald left behind a table of contents, and with this list as a guide it has been possible to publish here the collection that he envisioned, under the title My Lost City. This volume also includes several of Fitzgerald's autobiographical writings from the late 1930s. My Lost City, like the other volumes in the Cambridge Edition, provides accurate texts based on Fitzgerald's surviving manuscripts and typescripts. Words and passages cut by magazine editors have been restored to several of the essays. A textual apparatus has been included, along with full explanatory notes identifying people, places, books, historical events, and other details." (front flap) The first-ever, definitive collection of essays, including the brilliant, evocative & elegiac title piece, by F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald (1896-1940), the canonical American author who best-described & criticized the flamboyance & excess of the fabled "Jazz Age" of the "Roaring" 1920s. A beautiful production, hardcover in burgundy-colored cloth with gilt facsimile of Fitzgerald's signature at front cover, in unclipped attractive dust jacket: First edition thus, first printing, though neither explicated as such by this staid academic publisher. On the shorter title page, the editor of this volume, James L(emuel) W(ills) West III (b. 1946, the noted American author & academician), has hand-written & signed in bold blue ink: "For George &/ Jane with/ affectionate/ regards,/ (signed) Jim." "George" and "Jane" are George Bornstein (1941-2021) & his wife Jane York Bornstein. George Bornstein was an author, scholar & academician here at the University of Michigan- a tried-&-true Man of Letters, & a dearly missed friend & mentor to this writer. Jane York Bornstein, George's surviving widow, is an even older friend of this writer- we both were in the UM Honors English Program during the late 1970s, in which we were privileged to be taught by the Great Professor Herbert C. Barrows Jr. (1914-2002). Additionally, we found & have retained, between pages 174-175, a hand-written note from West III to George dated January 13, 2007 in the same blue ink as inscription noted above, on letter-size yellow lined paper folded twice horizontally, in very fine condition (see image to read the witty, relevant & affectionate colleague-to-colleague text of this note). A most collectible compilation of Fitzgerald's sparkling non-fiction personal essays, greatly enriched by its editor's warm inscription/signature, delightful ephemera & most-distinguished provenance. Book in very fine condition with only a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine esp. upper spine-edge, corner; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket very fine with only a touch of rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps esp. at upper spine-edge, corners. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #6193]

Price: $90.00