2025. It's been a ball.

Lovely Christmas gift from my wife. A copy of Woman's Home Companion dated July 1924 featuring an article by F Scott Fitzgerald. As his ledger records, certain aspects of the article were incorporated into The Great Gatsby. Fantastic condition. Also has other big surprises. #BookSky

Have spent the last few months experimenting with AI audio, chiefly because of the trends discussed below. Voice actors are expensive & although I don't think it comes close to replacing natural voices, it allows non-pros like me to offer user options. #BookSky www.thebookseller.com/news/audio-n...

Been exploring A.I. Words by me, pictures by Google Gemini. Have done much the same thing for posts on Katharine Fessenden and The Phantom of the Jazz Age. Uploaded edited text from chapters of a book I'm working on and gave instructions for illustrations. www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/the-glorious...

Happy CPA Christmas Fantasy Arc Angel angel www.cpaphil.com/en/p... #VintagePostcard #AntiquePostcard #FantasyPostcard #ChristmasAngel #Archangel #HeavenlyArt #VintageChristmas #ReligiousArt #SpiritualTheme #ClassicPostcard #Early20thCentury #AngelicFigure #ChristmasBlessings

I'm not a Catholic myself. I'm not a church-goer. But the subject has always interested me which is why I was keen to explore Fitzgerald's Catholic background. Interesting piece from The Guardian. Scott was mentored by 20th century converts. #BookSky www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood 85 years ago today. At the time of his death Scott was working on a screenplay for the Emlyn Williams drama, ‘The Light in Heart’ and finishing his fifth novel, The Last Tycoon. #BookSky #Literature

Listen F. Scott Fitzgerald biographer Arthur Mizener talking to Mary Margaret McBride in 1951. This is the full show. It was during this show that Scott's old friend Max Gerlach rang the show's producers to reveal that HE was the real Jay Gatsby. #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/arthur-mizen...

#Gatsby100 #FScottFitzgerald #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/christmas-ce...

What do Pinocchio, The Satyricon and The Great Gatsby have in common? #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/land-of-cock...

Oct 1923. As Scott Fitzgerald gets down to work on Gatsby, Arnold Rothstein (Meyer Wolfshiem in the novel) appears in court over the World Series Scandal. It would come to a head in May the following year. Scott's friend Ring Lardner was later said to be a key witness in the fix. #BookSky

Did Gatsby own his house or was it a rental? Well on page six of the first edition it says it was a rental. A house 'inhabited' by Mr Gatsby.

Pictures by Gemini Storybook, words by me. There's a limit to what content I'll let AI contribute. I'll let it draw or speak for me, but not think :-) www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/the-glorious...

Couple of sneaky peeks inside the armed services edition of The Great Gatsby (1942-43). These are from the back of the book. Discover why the critics are still shouting about it. They were? #BookSky

The Original Russian Job: The forgotten story of how a ‘secret compact’ between Churchill and Herbert Hoover very nearly saved Russia from Lenin's Soviet. This is the story of James V. Martin, aviation pioneer & whistleblower. Story and Podcast #History www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/american-rel...

NoteGPT. It'll probably divide opinion but there's no doubting how useful it can be for bloggers and writers on a budget. Converts text to speech and despite assumptions, you can have complete control over content, every word. notegpt.io

Who Made Gatsby Great? The Great Gatsby was not always regarded as a classic. This 30 minute podcast traces the evolution of F Scott Fitzgerald's legendary novel & how it eventually found favor in the chaos of WWII. #Literature #SkyBooks #History www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/gatsby-alleg...

I've been writing about the revival of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby after it was given away free to American soldiers during WWII as part of the Council on Books in Wartime initiative, a direct challenge to the Nazi book burnings. Disturbing reading #SkyBooks www.aclu.org/news/free-sp...

F Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, was proudly but distantly related to Francis Scott Key, composer of The Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem. It was composed at The Indian Queen Hotel in Baltimore, owned by John Gadsby. #BookSky #History

Podcast. In the summer of 1935, Gatsby author, F Scott Fitzgerald, headed to Asheville. Among his neighbours was the American fascist, William Dudley Pelley. This short series of podcasts explores Scott's encounters with fascism and communism. #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/american-dre...

Been thinking about the publication of The Great Gatsby on Good Friday 1925. When President Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday 1865, many found it almost impossible not to find some kind of symbolic correspondence with the crucifixion, especially with the reconciliation that followed. #BookSky

“Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!” What do the Great Gatsby and President Donald Trump have in common? Nostalgia. Here's a 17-minute podcast on Donald's Politics of the Factory Reset. tinyurl.com/5x4zx49k #BookSky #History #Politics

The Eyes of T. J. Eckleburg, The Valley of Ashes and the Meaning and Inspiration Behind Them. 15 minute podcast and article on The Great Gatsby's creepiest dimension. #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/t-j-ecklebur...

A vegetable in the White House? Surely he wasn't predicting Donald Trump? A look at a little known play by Gatsby author, F Scott Fitzgerald in which he imagines a complete moron elected as president. #BookSky #History #Literature www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/vegetable-eu...

So sad to hear about the death of Robert Redford. I think I was ten when I watched him in The Great Gatsby for the first time. Was completely and utterly mesmerized by the story. Among the careless folk of Hollywood, he was worth the whole damn bunch put together.

Big thanks to the staff of the The Brooke Russell Astor room at the NYPL for putting their hands on the letters from Scott's biographer Arthur Mizener & his wife to his friend, V F Calverton in the early to mid 1930s. Seems they used to meet in NY prior to Scott's death.

A ‘Secret Mission’ to Russia. How the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, very nearly became a spy. With podcast discussion. #History #BookSky www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/secret-missi...

I think this clipping could have been sent to Scott Fitzgerald by Max Gerlach. It says in handwriting, 'Meant to send this to you sooner'. Its from the St Louis Post Dispatch, May 1923. Its abt changes in liquor laws to the 3 mile limit. Max's 'old sport' clipping came from the same newspaper.

Bill Ryan said recently that, “pretty much every famous classic work of art has over time become the victim of Received Cultural Wisdom.” I've been looking at letters exchanged in the early 1930s between Arthur Mizener & Scott's friend V.F Calverton — 'the community communist' according to Zelda.

Ordering a copy of this from ebay. Was a bit pricey on Amazon. Now that I'm down to proofing and decluttering I can go crackers on secondary sources. Sarah Churchwell's book is another I'm hoping to pick up.

The Great Gatsby musical at the London Coliseum September 4, 2025. My daughter was thrilled at seeing it, not least because of Corbin Bleu.

There's a PDF copy of a Gatsby centenary article by Horst Kruse available here. Professor Kruse studied under Scott's first biographer Arthur Mizener at Cornell University and worked with Matthew Bruccoli on the story of Max Gerlach Use Google translate www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/kruse-feuill...

Sarah Churchwell with an article that sets the bar much higher than many Gatsby scholars have done of late. Covers quite an area. www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

“He started as one man I knew — and then changed into myself.” 100 years ago F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his old Princeton friend, John Peale Bishop and confessed that Gatsby had been an amalgam of himself and 'one man' he had known. #BookSky

In the process of fact checking again. Third read through and still correcting errors of all kinds. Dare say it will continue like this for awhile. Hope the effort pays off.

Another purchase. The second in a collection of memoirs from Edmund Wilson, one of the most distinguished American critics of his time. Close friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. #BookSky

[August 17th, 1925] Today's Flapper Fanny comic

#BookSky #History A look at Katharine Gotzian Tighe Fessenden, the woman who helped knock Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel into shape: www.monocledmutineer.co.uk/katharine-go...

Been awhile since I wrote music reviews, so here you go: here's Blake Hazard of The Submarines performing Oh Anatolia. It's rather good. She is also F. Scott Fitzgerald's great granddaughter. Lovely song. Will add to my 'chill' playlist. youtu.be/oioz-O8lBG4?...

Had a hand in researching and fact-checking this 8-part podcast series from Blanchard House on the inspiration for The Great Gatsby. I feature in it too! Now available on Audible. Joe Nocera narrates. Free on the Amazon app! #BookSky www.audible.co.uk/pd/American-...

Within days of the first biography of Scott Fitzgerald being published in Jan 1951, the book's author, Arthur Mizener was contacted by Max Gerlach who was claiming to be the real life inspiration for Jay Gatsby. I think I've nailed the reason why Mizener refused to meet him and follow-up his story.

During the Gatsby centenary year it would be fascinating to find veterans who had read The Great Gatsby as one of the 155,000 pocket-sized copies handed out free to US troops during WWII. Maybe one for the NY Times. #History #BookSky

“Out of the smoke and the dying flames, would stride the golden figure of Gatsby and in his hands, the tablets of the American Dream.” On July 16, 1945, the same day of Oppenheimer's Trinity Experiment in New Mexico, The New Republic reported on the birth of the Fitzgerald legend. #History #BookSky

Received Helen Rappaport's new book, Rebel Romanov for my birthday yesterday. Features a quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau that would sit just as well in a book about The Great Gatsby.

Scott Fitzgerald's friend, Bertha Goldstein aka Bert Barr with President Harding. Bert had a chequered history. Her first husband, a simple machinist, had divorced her on the grounds that she was an inveterate gambler and flirt. Scott would describe her as a card shark. Resourceful & upwardly mobile

The Great Gatsby wasn't the first of Scott's stories to feature an underworld crook trying to escape his destiny. In 1923 Fitzgerald came up with the screenplay for 'Grit' starring Glen Hunter and 'Black Oxen' flapper, Clara Bow. #BookSky #History

🎼 In 1902, Scott Joplin published “The Entertainer”, a ragtime composition that would later become iconic in American music. Its syncopated rhythm showcased Joplin’s brilliance and helped define the sound of a generation. #MusicHistory

"The soul within grasps at the absolute, at infinity, but man is confined and definite, and man’s life he defines as a game of grasping at the unattainable. " James C. Grey writing of Pirandello's work in 1922. One could equate it with Gatsby. Scott Fitzgerald was a fan of Pirandello's work #BookSky

Worrying times for Lit degrees. I did my 1st degree at Sheffield Hallam & started a PhD here. Moved across to New Media at Sheffield Uni after my then girlfriend said I would not be suitable for her wealthy family. As a result I lost the girl but made lots of cash www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Scott Fitzgerald's mother Mollie (Mary) as she appears with the McQuillan family on the 1880 census. Her sister Annabel would be maid of honour at wedding of James J. Hill's daughter, Mary. James J. Hill would later be immortalized in The Great Gatsby. #History #BookSky