Fitzgerald, F. Scott | A bawdy letter to his childhood friend Marie Hersey in the form of a collage

Property from the Estate of Maurice J. Curran III

Fitzgerald, F. Scott 

Autograph letter in the form of a collage to Marie Hersey, ca. early 1915

8 pages (162 x 130 mm) on two bifolia, n.p., n.d., [probably Princeton, circa 1915], with numerous clippings from printed matter pasted down throughout, and his hand-drawn trademark depicting a blackface caricature; a few short splits along horizontal folds, some offsetting from clippings, moderate staining to edges of pages 4 and 5 where previously taped. 

A fascinating Fitzgerald letter with collaged pictorial advertisements interspersed with his text and drawings, concerning two of the most enduring women in his literary imagination

Fitzgerald had grown up with Marie "Midge" Hersey in St. Paul and it was with her, in 1911, that he "experienced his first faint sex attraction." She became the model for Imogene Bissel in The Scandal Detectives, the autobiographical short story about Basil Duke Lee's first crush. While home for the 1914 Christmas vacation during his sophomore year, Fitzgerald met Ginevra King, Marie Hersey's Westover School classmate who was visiting during the holidays. Miss King was to become Fitzgerald's most important romantic attachment while he was at Princeton and the inspiration for many of his fictional heroines.

In this letter Fitzgerald humorously tells the history and fate of Miss Hersey, Miss King and three other girls who were mutual friends. the letter is headed "Letter for Hersey!" next to an image of a mailman. He establishes a cheeky tone from the outset: "I would advise Miss Hersey if she wants to keep her peace of mind and moreover her modesty not to look at middle pages of this sheet..." Upon turning the page he has written: "There – she turned it — well its her own fault!! This is shocking! We must turn the page quickly!" The accompanying collage depicts a nude woman next to a bathtub, while a man in a tux and top hat looks on through a window. 

The pages that follow feature "a history of some of the private life of the K.I.D.s" Page three describes Marie Hersey as "Description — Speed | Hair — Dark | Heart — Light". While her roommate is teased on the following page ("She will probably say this is all [image of a bull].") Ginevra King is featured on page 5 next to a printed clipping advertising the Lasell Seminary For Young Women: 

"Poor Ginevra!

This is some school she’s going to next year!

It’s not a finishing school but it will be her finish!

By that time she’ll be well-fitted to [BECOME A NURSE]!

Poor Ginevra!"

The friendship of Marie and Scott lasted throughout their lives. During his dark "crack-up" period in 1936, Fitzgerald wrote to her: "I think of you as about my oldest real friend, certainly my first love" (Letters, ed. Turnbull, 545), Ginevra King, meanwhile, appeared in This Side of Paradise as Isabelle and in Winter Dreams as Judy Jones, and probably formed part of the character of Daisy in The Great Gatsby [Turnbull, 150]. 

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby Parke Bernet, 20 February 1973, part of lot 207