HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby

by Sarah Churchwell

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3951163,528 (3.71)34
" Tracing the genesis of a masterpiece, a Fitzgerald scholar follows the novelist as he begins work on The Great Gatsby. The autumn of 1922 found F. Scott Fitzgerald at the height of his fame, days from turning twenty-six years old, and returning to New York for the publication of his fourth book, Tales of the Jazz Age. A spokesman for America's carefree younger generation, Fitzgerald found a home in the glamorous and reckless streets of New York. Here, in the final incredible months of 1922, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald drank and quarreled and partied amid financial scandals, literary milestones, car crashes, and celebrity disgraces. Yet the Fitzgeralds' triumphant return to New York coincided with another event: the discovery of a brutal double murder in nearby New Jersey, a crime made all the more horrible by the farce of a police investigation-which failed to accomplish anything beyond generating enormous publicity for the newfound celebrity participants. Proclaimed the "crime of the decade" even as its proceedings dragged on for years, the Mills-Hall murder has been wholly forgotten today. But the enormous impact of this bizarre crime can still be felt in The Great Gatsby, a novel Fitzgerald began planning that autumn of 1922 and whose plot he ultimately set within that fateful year. Careless People is a unique literary investigation: a gripping double narrative that combines a forensic search for clues to an unsolved crime and a quest for the roots of America's best loved novel. Overturning much of the received wisdom of the period, Careless People blends biography and history with lost newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival materials. With great wit and insight, acclaimed scholar of American literature Sarah Churchwell reconstructs the events of that pivotal autumn, revealing in the process new ways of thinking about Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Interweaving the biographical story of the Fitzgeralds with the unfolding investigation into the murder of Hall and Mills, Careless People is a thrilling combination of literary history and murder mystery, a mesmerizing journey into the dark heart of Jazz Age America"-- "Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby has become one of the world's best-loved books, delighting readers across the world. Careless People tells the true story behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, exploring in newly rich detail the relation of Fitzgerald's classic to the chaotic world he in which he lived. Fitzgerald set his novel in 1922, and Careless People carefully reconstructs the crucial months during which Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald returned to New York in the autumn of 1922 - the parties, the drunken weekends at Great Neck, Long Island, the drives back into the city to the jazz clubs and speakeasies, the casual intersection of high society and organized crime, and the growth of celebrity culture of which the Fitzgeralds themselves were the epitome. And for the first time it returns to the story of Gatsby and the high-profile murder that provided a crucial inspiration for Fitzgerald's tale. With wit and insight, Sarah Churchwell traces the genesis of a masterpiece, discovering where fiction comes from, and how it takes shape in the mind of a genius. Blending biography and history with lost and forgotten newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival material, Careless People is the biography of a book, telling the extraordinary tale of how F. Scott Fitzgerald created a classic and in the process discovered modern America"--… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 34 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
While the link to the real life murder mystery is tenuous at best, still an enjoyable read. Particularly enjoyed the bits that dealt with the. Decades influence on language ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
This ambitious book about the origins of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a tour de force account of the US in the 1920s. Not only did Fitzgerald give a name to the time, the Jazz Age, he lived it and wrote about it. He was the chronicler of the era.

I am a Fitzgerald fan but anyone interested in literature, the 1920s and history will enjoy this book. Sarah Churchwell combines biographical details of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s hedonistic alcohol-fuelled and chaotic lives, the days of (alcohol) Prohibition, and a double murder that dominated headlines for years. She brings together these disparate elements into a cohesive and comprehensive account.

A Princeton friend of Fitzgerald’s, Alec McKaig, wrote after visiting Scott and Zelda: “Called on Scott Fitz and his bride. Latter temperamental small town, Southern Belle. Chews gum – shows knees. I do not think marriage can succeed. Both drinking heavily. Think they will be divorced in three years. Scott write something big – then die in a garret at 32.” His words were prescient: the marriage survived on paper but they lived separate lives after Zelda’s breakdown, and he wrote something big. The Great Gatsby is one of the great American novels made into a movie four times (1926, 1949, 1974, 2013). It’s a story of illusion, romance and death.
Churchwell shows how current events inspired events in the novel. One of those was the murder of New Jersey lovers Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall, 41 and Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, 34, wife of Hall’s church janitor and singer in the choir, Jimmy Mills, 45. Churchwell makes the link with The Great Gatsby clear. But the double murder has more space than it needed and slows the pace. Besides that minor drawback, Careless People is full of interesting information. The Fitzgeralds were the first American celebrities who lived life large and loud. Their story – like that of the eponymous Gatsby – was tragic; Churchwell tells it well.
  Neil_333 | Mar 28, 2020 |
Would have liked it more had it not dragged as much as it did in the middle. I also found the connection to the unsolved murder a little tenuous, at best. However, it did make me want to reread [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361191055s/4671.jpg|245494] quite a bit. I do enjoy reading criticism of books I didn't particularly enjoy! ( )
  gossamerchild88 | Mar 30, 2018 |
If you think Gatsby is one of the greatest 20th century novels as I do, then this is a very useful companion to it. Some excellent analysis of the novel well interspersed with biographical details and social history - although perhaps rather too much on the notorious murder case which may have influenced the novel. ( )
  stephengoldenberg | Apr 6, 2016 |
I love true crime, and I love The Great Gatsby (I think its concluding sentences are honestly some of the finest ever written), so that I would love this book seemed like a given. And I did love this book, even more than I expected.

Churchwell explores the fascinating, heartbreaking, scandalous. and, yes, careless, lives of the Fitzgeralds. From Scott and Zelda's seemingly never-ending alcohol consumption and partying, to Scott's deep felt disappointment at the lack of commercial success for what he considered his finest writing, and Zelda's descent into a series of heartrending breakdowns, Churchwell makes their world and the time period they lived in come alive in vivid color.

Churchwell also expertly weaves in the still-unsolved Hall-Mills murder case, and how its scandal, adultery, and immediacy as (tabloid) newspaper fodder may have influenced The Great Gatsby.

History, mystery, and literary theory all combine to make for a fascinating non-fiction read. ( )
  seasonsoflove | Mar 24, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
You've got [the] gift of going after the beauty that's concealed under the facts; and goddammit, that's all there is to art. -Deems Taylor to F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
The fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do...
-John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"
Dedication
To WJA
First words
On Thursday, September 14, 1922, in St. Paul, Minnesota, a popular young writer named F. Scott Fitzgerald and his glamorous wife, Zelda, were finishing their preparations to move to New York.
Quotations
Ultimately Fitzgerald chose not to use the word “America” at all in the novel’s concluding passage. America remains an emblem—not quite a metaphor, but a symbol, a figure, the fact as colossal as a continent—and what it represents is not a specific nation but a human capacity, our capacity for hope, for wonder, for discovery. It represents the corruption of that capacity into a faith in the material world, rather than the ideal one. And it reminds us, too, of our careless habit of losing our paradises.
...catastrophe was only a matter of measurements.
“Winter Dreams” closes with Dexter’s realization that the loss of love is much easier to bear than the loss of illusions: “Even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.”
...dream realized is a dream destroyed: only deferral and frustration can keep it alive.
...unlike fiction, reality has no obligation to be realistic.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

" Tracing the genesis of a masterpiece, a Fitzgerald scholar follows the novelist as he begins work on The Great Gatsby. The autumn of 1922 found F. Scott Fitzgerald at the height of his fame, days from turning twenty-six years old, and returning to New York for the publication of his fourth book, Tales of the Jazz Age. A spokesman for America's carefree younger generation, Fitzgerald found a home in the glamorous and reckless streets of New York. Here, in the final incredible months of 1922, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald drank and quarreled and partied amid financial scandals, literary milestones, car crashes, and celebrity disgraces. Yet the Fitzgeralds' triumphant return to New York coincided with another event: the discovery of a brutal double murder in nearby New Jersey, a crime made all the more horrible by the farce of a police investigation-which failed to accomplish anything beyond generating enormous publicity for the newfound celebrity participants. Proclaimed the "crime of the decade" even as its proceedings dragged on for years, the Mills-Hall murder has been wholly forgotten today. But the enormous impact of this bizarre crime can still be felt in The Great Gatsby, a novel Fitzgerald began planning that autumn of 1922 and whose plot he ultimately set within that fateful year. Careless People is a unique literary investigation: a gripping double narrative that combines a forensic search for clues to an unsolved crime and a quest for the roots of America's best loved novel. Overturning much of the received wisdom of the period, Careless People blends biography and history with lost newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival materials. With great wit and insight, acclaimed scholar of American literature Sarah Churchwell reconstructs the events of that pivotal autumn, revealing in the process new ways of thinking about Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Interweaving the biographical story of the Fitzgeralds with the unfolding investigation into the murder of Hall and Mills, Careless People is a thrilling combination of literary history and murder mystery, a mesmerizing journey into the dark heart of Jazz Age America"-- "Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby has become one of the world's best-loved books, delighting readers across the world. Careless People tells the true story behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, exploring in newly rich detail the relation of Fitzgerald's classic to the chaotic world he in which he lived. Fitzgerald set his novel in 1922, and Careless People carefully reconstructs the crucial months during which Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald returned to New York in the autumn of 1922 - the parties, the drunken weekends at Great Neck, Long Island, the drives back into the city to the jazz clubs and speakeasies, the casual intersection of high society and organized crime, and the growth of celebrity culture of which the Fitzgeralds themselves were the epitome. And for the first time it returns to the story of Gatsby and the high-profile murder that provided a crucial inspiration for Fitzgerald's tale. With wit and insight, Sarah Churchwell traces the genesis of a masterpiece, discovering where fiction comes from, and how it takes shape in the mind of a genius. Blending biography and history with lost and forgotten newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival material, Careless People is the biography of a book, telling the extraordinary tale of how F. Scott Fitzgerald created a classic and in the process discovered modern America"--

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.71)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2
2.5 2
3 16
3.5 6
4 16
4.5 2
5 9

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Tantor Media

An edition of this book was published by Tantor Media.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,659,382 books! | Top bar: Always visible