Plagiarism and the Most Controversial “It” Couple

By Chief in Editor Lisa Ahern

Was Zelda Fitzgerald plagiarised by one of the most famous authors of the 20th century, her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald? There are many reports circulating the internet outrightly stating that Zelda wrote The Great Gatsby or that F. Scott stole the words directly from her diaries. There is constant critical debate around this topic. For one to answer these questions, one must explore the passionate, rowdy couple that is the Fitzgeralds.

Zelda Fitzgerald was born 24 July 1900 in Montgomery, Alabama and was the youngest child of Alabama Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Dickson Sayre. She grew up in a world with wealth and was a rebellious “Southern Belle”. One day in 1918, F. Scott Fitzgerald stumbled into her life. F. Scott was stationed in Alabama as part of the military. At the time he was an aspiring author. His career ambitions didn’t promise much money, meaning there was hesitation on Zelda’s part and refused F.Scott’s first proposal. Rich debutante meets a not so wealthy boy in the military–this plot sounds oddly familiar… The pair eventually married in 1920 and soon became the “It” couple of the swinging 20’s.

They lived in excess during the “honeymoon” years of their marriage, drinking and partying. During this time, F.Scott  was creating his debut novel This Side of  Paradise and allegedly began scrapping a large proportion of the novel to rewrite it to fit his new muse, Zelda. The lead female character Rosalind Connage is based on Zelda herself, dubbing the title of  “first flapper girl” upon Zelda. This is where the “plagiarism” accusations are starting to arise. Zelda was a woman of the arts just like her husband, and she adored writing, but in a more personal fashion. She kept journals and wrote letters. Her prose style was said to be very poetic and lyrical. Apparently while F. Scott was writing his debut novel, these journals and letters were given to him “voluntarily” by Zelda, meaning the prose was heavily inspired and influenced by her.

The claims that they were given voluntarily can be contradicted. Zelda later writes in a review about F. Scott’s sophomore novel, The Beautiful and The Damned, in the New York Tribune: “It seems to me that on one page I recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage, and, also, scraps of letters which, though considerably edited, sound to me vaguely familiar. In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald (I believe that is how he spells his name) seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.”  There are obvious signs of satire within this comment with the mention of the spelling of his name, but how much of it is true or was it an inside joke between the couple? This was a very public call out to the controversy of the plagiarism of Zelda Fitzgerald. Was she “just” a muse or did she write parts of these novels?

As the years went on, Zelda started to write her own short stories outside of F.Scott’s influence. Tensions rose within the marriage. Alongside the couple’s relationship slowly falling apart, Zelda’s mental health began to deteriorate also. Zelda was apparently having an affair at the time and  The Great Gatsby was supposedly inspired by these biographical events,basically airing Zelda’s dirty laundry out in public. To emphasise the point that Daisy was inspired by Zelda, the famous line: “I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool–that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” was apparently a direct quote from Zelda after the birth of their daughter Scottie. This information was all reported within Beloved Infidel, which was written by Sheilah Graham, a mistress of F. Scott, so we do not know if she could be classified as a reliable narrator or not. 

More things that hint to F. Scott taking extracts directly from his wife's writing was the scandal of the journals. George G. Nathan, an editor of a publishing house, approached Zelda, the infamous party girl, to publish her journals to show the world the real Zelda Fitzgerald. This however was refused by F. Scott as he did not want the world knowing their private business. However, was there possibly another reason for this? Was it because he was afraid of people comparing his novels, like The Great Gatsby, to her journals and making connections that would be damaging to his career? Unfortunately we will never know the answer because the journals vanished and were never to be found again. How very convenient for F. Scott.

As their marriage was on the rocks, Zelda’s mental health was at an all time low and she was institutionalised. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and treated for it in 1930, following a mental breakdown. While she was in hospital she did not stop writing and wrote her debut, and only novel, Save Me the Waltz. This is a semi autobiographical novel that follows Alabama Beggs who meets a 22 year old Irish Catholic man and explores their marriage as he tackles with alcoholism. While Zelda wrote this, F.Scott was working on his novel Tender is The Night. Apparently there was contention between the couple because some of the sections within Zelda’s novel overlapped with what was written by F. Scott, since they both decided to take a more autobiographical route within these novels.

Tender is the Night and Save Me The Waltz are both pieces of work that the couple produced independently of each other. Zelda’s novel was not received well by the public, making only $120. Critics said Zelda’s prose was beautifully composed but the narrative fell flat. While having a fast pacing and inventive plot was one of F. Scott’s strengths in his novel, the prose was reviewed as lacking poetic fluidity that was present in his previous novels. Tender is the Night also did not make it big in the public eye, it sold more at 13,000 copies but it was still a struggle for F. Scott. Could it be said that the novel lacked the feminine touch of Zelda Fitzgerald? 

Even if the two pieces of fiction that they wrote separately “flopped”, it unfortunately does not answer the question of how much of F. Scott’s novels were really written by Zelda. It does however demonstrate to us that it took the minds of both Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald to create masterpieces like The Great Gatsby. Whether Zelda was plagiarised or not is it undoubtedly clear that the mark Zelda made on F. Scott’s work is inestimable.