by Sally Cline
First published 2012
Sally Cline reconstructs the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, the woman who embodied the spirit of America's first flapper. Drawing from Zelda's autobiographical writings and hundreds of personal letters to friends, family, and publishers, Cline traces her subject's journey from Jazz Age symbol to psychiatric patient. The author examines fresh medical evidence and conducts interviews with Zelda's final psychiatrist to challenge conventional diagnoses of her mental illness. Cline argues that Zelda's supposed madness may have resulted more from harsh schizophrenia treatments and Scott's severe alcoholism than from inherent psychological disorders. The biography places Zelda within her vibrant social world, populated by literary figures like Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, and H. L. Mencken. Through meticulous research and sharp analysis, Cline presents a compelling reexamination of a woman whose personal tragedy became inseparable from the mythology of the Roaring Twenties.
Genres: biography, american-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: mental-illness, mythology
Period: Jazz Age
715 pages · Kindle Edition · Arcade
Content warnings: mental-illness