The Crack-Up. This item is unavailable.The Crack-Up

"The Crack-Up" was first published by New Directions in 1945 and is now being rediscovered by a new generation of readers. Compiled and edited by Edmund Wilson shortly after Fitzgerald's death, "The Crack-Up" tells the story of Fitzgerald's sudden descent at age thirty-nine from a life of success and glamor to one of emptiness and despair, and his determined recovery. This vigorous and revealing collection of essays and letters renders the tale of a man whose personality still charms us all and whose reckless gaiety and genious made him a living symbol and the Jazz Age. For those who grew up with "The Great Gatsby" or "Tender is the Night," this extraordinary autobiographical collection provides a unique personal blend of the romance and reality embodied by Fitzgerald's literature and his life.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, joined the army during World War I, and in 1920 married Zelda Sayre and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise. His books include The Beautiful and Damned and Tender Is the Night. He died at the age of forty-four while working on The Last Tycoon. New Directions also publishes Fitzgerald’s The Crack-Up and On Booze.