In 1924 the Fitzgeralds moved to France, which was a turning point in their lives, and they will meet many celebrities of the time.
Through a friend, they get acquainted and makes friends with Gerald and Sara Murphy. Gerald Clery Murphy and Sara Sherman Wiborg were wealthy, expatriate Americans who moved to the French Riviera in the early 20th century and who, with their generous hospitality and flair for parties, created a vibrant social circle, particularly in the 1920s, that included a great number of artists and writers of the Lost Generation.
At a party thrown by this couple, Zelda and Scott meet other important personalities of the time. Picasso and his wife Olga Khokhlova are there.
Cole Porter was another of the guests. Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter.
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker.
The Fitzgeralds moved to a house in St Raphael in the French Riviera.
There Zelda had an affair with Edouard Jozan. While Scott was absorbed writing The Great Gatsby, Zelda became infatuated with a dashing young French pilot, Edouard S. Jozan. She spent afternoons swimming at the beach and evenings dancing at the casinos with Jozan. After six weeks, Zelda asked for a divorce. Scott at first demanded to confront Jozan, but instead dealt with Zelda’s demand by locking her in their house, until she abandoned her request for divorce.
In 1925 Scott finished “The Great Gatsby”. It follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. First published by Scribner’s in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies.
The Fitzgeralds then travelled to Rome and Capri, and they were visibly unhappy, and then they returned to Paris. Around this time, they continue making acquaintances.
Zelda met several artists when she took up painting. One of them was Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) , who was an American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris.
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard (May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970), was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri.
Scott gets to meet Compton McKenzie. Sir Compton Mackenzie(17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was an English born Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist.
One event that marked Zelda and Scott’s marriage was his friendship with Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald’s friendship with Hemingway was quite effusive, as many of Fitzgerald’s relationships would prove to be. Hemingway did not get on well with Zelda, however, and in addition to describing her as “insane” in his memoir A Moveable Feast, Hemingway claimed that Zelda “encouraged her husband to drink so as to distract Fitzgerald from his work on his novel,” so he could work on the short stories he sold to magazines to help support their lifestyle.
Zelda scorned Hemingway because he didn’t treat his wife Hadley well as he was in a relationship with another woman, Pauline Pfeiffer.
Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (November 9, 1891 – January 22, 1979) was the first wife of American author Ernest Hemingway. The two married in 1921 after a courtship of less than a year, and moved to Paris within months of being married. In Paris, Hemingway pursued a writing career, and through him Hadley met other expatriate British and American writers. In 1925, Hadley learned of Hemingway’s affair with Pauline Pfeiffer; in 1927, she divorced him.
Pauline Marie Pfeiffer (July 22, 1895 – October 1, 1951) was an American journalist, and the second wife of the writer Ernest Hemingway.
Another man who Zelda thought led too libertine a life was Ezra Pound. Actually, Ezra introduces the Fitzgearalds to Hemingway. Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, as well as a major figure in the early modernist movement.
In Paris Zelda learns to dance charleston from Ada Bricktop Smith. Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, better known as Bricktop, (August 14, 1894 – February 1, 1984) was an American dancer, jazz singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper who owned the nightclub Chez Bricktop in Paris from 1924 to 1961.
Around this time, Zelda gets interested in ballet again, and she becomes friends with Mikhail Larionov, who designs for the Russian ballet, and who later Scott becomes jealous of. Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov (June 3, 1881 – May 10, 1964) was an avant-garde Russian painter. In 1915 he left Russia and worked with the ballet owner Sergei Diaghilev in Paris on the productions of the Ballets Russes.
In Paris they also hung out with Dorothy Parker, who they already knew. Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, short story writer, critic, and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
The Fitzgeralds spent weeks at a time with the Murphys in the Antibes. There they see a performance of Isadora Duncan, who Zelda loves. Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878– September 14, 1927) was an American dancer who performed to acclaim throughout Europe.
Advertisements Share this:
