Reflections on a Famous Writer

After watching Last Call (2002) some ten years after it was released, a film with Jeremy Irons playing the famous writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, a film which describes his relationship with Frances Kroll during his last two years of life, I wrote the following paragraphs. The film was based on the memoir of Frances Kroll, entitled Against the Current: As I Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald (1985). This memoir records her experience as secretary to Fitzgerald for the last 20 months of his life.

-----------------------------------------------------------

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD—ME—AND THE BAHA’I FAITH

The last years, 1937 to 1940, of the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald(1896-1940) and his affair with radio host Sheilah Graham, the Hollywood gossip columnist, were the centre for the themes of the movie Beloved Infidel.  Fitzgerald has turned to alcoholism after becoming washed up; he is writing a novel he never finishes and at the same time his wife is in a mental institution.

This movie was released in November 1959, the month after I joined the Baha’i Faith.  In September I completed another successful season in the Burlington baseball league; in July and August I worked at my summer jobs, jobs I had from grade 4 to the end of my four-year university programs.  In the summers back then in the 1950s and early 1960s, I went swimming in Lake Ontario with my friends among other activities which I have written about in my autobiography and which will not be of interest to many after I pass from this mortal coil.  Earlier that year, in May-June 1959 I completed another successful year of high school, and in April a not-so-successful season in the midget ice-hockey league in that little town of Burlington Ontario by the shores of Lake Ontario. 

I knew nothing, back then, of this famous writer, F, Scott Fitzgerald, immersed as I was in my life and the life of this small town in what was, and is still, called Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe. The film Beloved Infidel depicted Fitzgerald during his final years from the summer of 1937 as a Hollywood screenwriter on $1000/week, and freelance script-writer.  The first Baha’i teaching Plan had just begun in the spring of 1937, a Plan I have now been associated with in various ways for 60 years.  Fitzgerald died in December 1940 just as my mother and father were first meeting and WW2 was hotting-up. In all likelihood,  Fitzgerald  knew nothing of this new world Faith which had only 4000 members in the USA in 1940 and, perhaps, 300-400 adherents in Canada when he died.  

The film Beloved Infidel describes, as I say above, Fitzgerald’s affair with Ms Graham while his wife, Zelda, was institutionalized. Fitzgerald knew about mental illness first hand as did I in my lifespan.  When the film about Fitzgerald, Last Call, was released in 2002, I had retired after 32 years in classrooms as a teacher and another 18 as a student.  This film also described Fitzgerald’s last years; the focus was on his relationship with Frances Kroll Ring, his secretary.  The film was based on Ring’s 1985 memoir, entitled Against the Current: As I Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In 1985 I had just begun my own memoir and, by 2002, I had become a full-time writer and poet, editor and author, and was on an old-age pension.

Both Fitzgerald and I were busy people during our lifespan: energetic, restless, and forever on the go.  The medications I began to take in 2007 at the age of 63, though, allowed my active mind to continue buzzing with ideas in a similar way to Fitzgerald. Alcohol had never been, for me, a problem, nor had drugs.  These meds helped me deal with my bipolar disorder, medications which were not available for Zelda back in the 1930s.  Fitzgerald had always used alcohol to sooth life’s slings and arrows, as millions of people do, and alcohol made him, along with his tuberculosis and the mental health problems of his wife Zelda, unstuck.¹  

He accomplished much in short bursts, but projects that required long-term commitment, stamina, and steady, persistent effort were not easy for him.  This was true for him all his life; it became true for me after 2007.  Before 2007, too, any big writing projects I took on all had to be done in short bursts.  Nervous energy got him going; the energy that came from an enthusiasm for a project got me going.  He sometimes found it difficult to relax, slow down, or take time to reflect and replenish himself.

With my new meds I had no trouble slowing down and replenishing myself.  Often during the day I’d go to bed, sometimes just to rest and sometimes to sleep.  Since I had retired from the job world by 2007 in my early 60s, this presented no problem. People no longer drained me because I had left the job world and, whatever draining took place due to my interaction in the small circle of family, friends and associations in my life, I was able to go off to bed and sleep and, in the process, get back on track.

Fitzgerald scattered his energies into so many directions and so many activities at once that he could not finish or follow-through on most of them. The famous artist Leonardo da Vinci was also like this.  Both of these men needed variety, change, and mental challenges, partly due to their wide range of interests. I, too, needed variety in my writing experiences and I got it both before and after 2007 by writing poetry and prose on a myriad subjects.

F. Scott Fitzgerald had a sharp and eager mind, and he enjoyed games and competitions that had a mental component. Fitzgerald played vigorously and enjoyed competitive games and physical rough-and-tumble activities. Athletics and/or physical activities had great appeal for him.  He took the initiative in sports.  I did, as well, but only in my childhood and adolescence.  He liked to match wits with someone else as did I but, by 2007, I liked to do so as a writer in cyberspace and not so much in my day-to-day relationships.

Fitzgerald achieved his desires by his verbal skill, his ability to speak clearly, vigorously, and convincingly in relation to what he wanted. I did as well during the more than 3 decades I was a teacher.  By 2007 my verbal skills were focussed on writing.  His drive and energy was more mental than physical and that was true of me by my 20s.  F. Scott Fitzgerald used his wit, intelligence, communication skills, social sophistication, and awareness to achieve his goals, as did I. We were both ardent in pursuing anything we desired.

Fits of temper and impatience, and a sudden, erratic sort of recklessness all worked very much against F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially when he needed to be working cooperatively as part of a team or in a partnership. When he was upset or fired up about something, Francis Scott often did things that were risky and outrageous. When out of balance, Fitzgerald tended to be accident-prone.  He was often charged with energy and inspired about what he wanted to do, but there was a dreamy, visionary, or passive side to him as well. His energy level fluctuated from being superabundant to rather lax. There was an element of this in my life due to my bipolar disorder.

F. Scott Fitzgerald had a very active and fertile imagination and his ambitions were never strictly mundane, practical, and concrete.  He had a strong desire to act out his fantasies and dreams, his visions and ideals.  Artistic creation, drama, and other areas in which he could express himself imaginatively were areas in which he excelled.  Ordinary life seemed drab and uninteresting to him and he needed to have some big dream or something larger than his own narrow personal interests to live for.  Sometimes he was confused about exactly how and where to direct his energy and he often drifted along rather than making clear decisions about what he wanted. This was part of his passive side, a side which lacked the will power, physical energy, strength, and the fighting spirit to achieve his aims.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wanted something, he went after it with passionate zeal and was sometimes so driven by his desire that he lost all objectivity. Francis Scott got so deeply involved in whatever he was pursuing that he became one-sided, even fanatical. Strong-willed and stubborn, F. Scott Fitzgerald insisted on having his way no matter the cost.  He was fascinated with power. F. Scott Fitzgerald often tried to overpower anything or anyone he perceived as an obstacle, if not physically then by the force of his will. Fitzgerald could be ruthless and impersonal when it came to achieving his ambitions and goals in life. Francis Scott had enormous energy and was capable of extraordinary effort and great achievement. He had a compulsive workaholic side to him, as did I. The Baha’i Faith helped to centre my life, my philosophy and activity. Fitzgerald had no such centre, force and conviction..

Francis Scott had grand aspirations and was inordinately ambitious at times.  He was apt to be discontented with small successes and to feel like a failure unless he achieved extraordinary things. In his professional life F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved a great deal of recognition and success. Early on in his career, important and influential people in his field noticed and helped him along. His decisions were based on the demands of the situation and he was able to take advantage of the right moment. Strongly career oriented, F. Scott Fitzgerald had inner conflicts between his professional and personal lives.² –Ron Price with thanks to: ¹ Matthew J. Bruccoli’s “A Brief Life of Fitzgerald” originally appeared in F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, ed. Bruccoli with the assistance of Judith S. Baughman, Scribner’s, NY, 1994; and ²Top Synergy.com  http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/F_Scott_Fitzgerald/Drive.asp