Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

Fitzgerald, F. Scott Tender is the Night. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934 8vo. Publisher's dark blue-green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; boards lightly soiled. Pictorial dust jacket; spine panel lightly faded, light wear and a few short tears to edges, toning along fold of interior black flap, still a particularly bright example. First edition, a very fine association copy, inscribed to Donald Ogden Stewart on the front free endpaper: "Dear Don: This will amuse you I think. Scott." Donald Ogden Stewart (1894-1980) was a prominent American humorist and writer who achieved success in Golden Age Hollywood writing movies such as The Philadelphia Story, which won him the Oscar for best screenplay. He was a lifelong friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald, a relationship that began in the Summer of 1919 when Fitzgerald was reworking his draft of The Romantic Egoist into what would become his debut novel, This Side of Paradise. Stewart had literary aspirations of his own, and was among Fitzgeralds' pre-publication readers: "I got him to lend me [the manuscript of] This Side of Paradise, written in pencil. I approved of it, with my Yale reservations. I didn't know enough to appreciate his style and form, but the content was exciting" (Stewart, p. 86). Fitzgerald encouraged Stewart's literary ambition in turn, and he helped kickstart his career by connecting him with an old Princeton friend at Vanity Fair. Following the success of his H.G. Wells satire, A Parody Outline of History, he earned an invitation to the famous Algonquin Round Table. Throughout the 1920s he was part of a literary community that—in addition to the Fitzgeralds—included Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, John Dos Passos, and Ernest Hemingway. Stewart joined Hemingway on the trip to Pamplona that served as the inspiration for his debut novel, The Sun Also Rises; also serving as a model for the character of Bill Gorton. After returning from Europe, Stewart settled down in California and embarked upon a career in Hollywood. There, his path crossed once more with Fitzgerald, who had returned to Hollywood in dire financial straits when the cost of his opulent lifestyle and Zelda's medical bills finally caught up with him. The pair worked together (unsuccessfully) on screenplays for The Women (George Cukor, 1939), and the never-realized Air Raid (Paramount, 1939), but Fitzgerald privately ridiculed Stewart for his increasingly liberal politics (which would eventually earn Stewart a place on the Hollywood blacklist). It was quite possibly during this final period of collaboration—Fitzgerald died in 1940—that he inscribed this copy of Tender is the Night to Donald Ogden Stewart. Tender in the Night was Fitzgerald's last novel and, in his own opinion, his finest work. In the nineteen years which had passed between the publication of The Great Gatsby and the appearance of Tender is the Night in April 1934, anticipation and expectation had built around what would be Fitzgerald's last novel. However, on publication, it achieved neither the acclaim nor the sales which Fitzgerald hoped for, an outcome which puzzled him for the rest of his life. This was despite a number of overwhelmingly positive reviews, including that of John Chamberlain for The New York Times, who wrote: "Mr. Fitzgerald has not forgotten his craftsmanship... Beyond the story, there is [his] ability to catch the "essence of a continent", the flavor of a period, the fragrance of a night and a snatch of old song, in a phrase." "...a wonderful evocation of the second phase of American expatriates ... described with flashes of genius by an expert in self-destruction... " (Connolly). REFERENCES Bruccoli A15.1.a; Connolly 79; Donald Ogden Stewart, By a Stroke of Luck! An Autobiography, London: 1975 PROVENANCE Donald Ogden Stewart (presentation inscription) — Roger Rechler (Christie's New York, 11 October 2002, lot 91, achieved $119,500)

View 1 of Lot 1059: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | Tender is the Night, first edition, inscribed to Donald Ogden Stewart

fitzgerald, f. scott | tender is the night, first edition, inscribed to donald ogden stewart

Fitzgerald, F. Scott Tender Is the Night: A Romance. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934 8vo. Publisher’s dark blue-green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; boards rubbed with light mottling and a couple of stains to front cover, extremities worn. First edition, inscribed across the title-page “For Carma Freeman with the gratitude + best wishes of the author | F. Scott Fitzgerald | Marburg 1934.” A significant presentation copy of Fitzgerald’s last completed novel, gifted to the nurse who attended him during his convalescence at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1934. Tender is the Night was completed that year to lukewarm sales and a few good reviews. Carma Kaufman Freeman, a Johns Hopkins–trained nurse married to Dr. George Freeman, formed part of Fitzgerald’s small circle of steadying figures during his Baltimore crisis. Her professionalism and kindness left a strong impression on him, and the pieces he inscribed for her were the gifts of a man acutely aware of his own fragility. This Tender Is the Night, probably inscribed in the Marburg Building, the central domed structure of Johns Hopkins Hospital, represents the most formal and straightforward of his gifts to her, in contrast to the warmth of the inscription in her copy of This Side of Paradise (lot 1056) and the intimacy of the manuscript poem (see lot 1058). Indeed, the phrasing here: “with the gratitude + best wishes of the author,” is decidedly earnest. REFERENCES: Bruccoli, Matthew J., Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002; Daniel, Anne Margaret. "Medical advances: How F. Scott Fitzgerald's nurse inspired a fictional romance." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6224, 15 July 2022, p. 13 PROVENANCE: Carma Kaufman Freeman; thence by descent

View 1 of Lot 1057: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | “With the gratitude + best wishes of the author” — First edition of Tender Is the Night, inscribed to his nurse

fitzgerald, f. scott | “with the gratitude + best wishes of the author” — first edition of tender is the night, inscribed to his nurse

Fitzgerald, F. Scott Autograph manuscript fair copy of Edgar Fawcett’s poem “The Other Side of the Moon,” in Fitzgerald’s hand, 4 pp., on a single bifolium of Cedar Top / Ruxton stationery (each page 160 x 128 mm), [Summer 1934], in dark ink; folds marks, a few marginal smudges. A moving and scarce manuscript from the grim Baltimore summer of 1934, written for the young nurse who cared for Fitzgerald during multiple hospitalizations. A touching poem gifted to the nurse who cared for Fitzgerald during his Baltimore hospitalizations in the summer of 1934. During this bleak period Zelda was institutionalized at Sheppard-Pratt; Scottie was staying with cousins in Norfolk; and Fitzgerald himself moved between the Marburg Building at Johns Hopkins and stretches of fragile recuperation at home, cared for by Carma Kaufman Freeman. Written on Cedar Top letterhead, the Ruxton, Maryland house where Fitzgerald was a guest late that summer, this manuscript transcribes in full Edgar Fawcett’s poem “The Other Side of the Moon,” a dialogue between an adult and an eight-year-old girl with golden hair ("Is it true,” she asked, “that nobody ever yet has seen the other side of the moon?”). The poem echoes Fitzgerald’s anxieties about Scottie—reflected also in Amalie, the abandoned daughter in “Her Last Case,” drafted that same August, and in part inspired by Carma. “Are you talking of heaven?” she whispered now, as she nestled against my knees; and I said as I stroked her white, wide brows, “You may call it that if you please. For if ever such wonderful land there be, and we journey there late or soon from Heaven, I’m sure, we may look & see the other side of the moon.” This transcription captures Fitzgerald at a moment when illness, debt, and emotional strain had constricted his life to a handful of caretakers. Even then, he still found the strength to look upward toward the stars. REFERENCES Bruccoli, Matthew J., Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002; Daniel, Anne Margaret. "Medical advances: How F. Scott Fitzgerald's nurse inspired a fictional romance." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6224, 15 July 2022, p. 13 PROVENANCE Carma Kaufman Freeman; thence by descent

View 1 of Lot 1058: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | An autograph manuscript fair copy of Edgar Fawcett’s “The Other Side of the Moon,” written for his nurse, Carma Kaufman Freeman

fitzgerald, f. scott | an autograph manuscript fair copy of edgar fawcett’s “the other side of the moon,” written for his nurse, carma kaufman freeman

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1931 8vo. Publisher’s dark blue-green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; cloth a little rubbed with minor fraying to spine extremities, corners lightly bumped. Inscribed by Fitzgerald on the front free endpaper: “Best wishes ("Now you just go right to sleep") from Old Insomniac Fitzgerald to his old childhood nurse, Mrs. Freeman.” This rare survival is from one of the most difficult periods of Fitzgerald’s life. In the summer of 1934, Zelda remained hospitalized at Sheppard-Pratt, Scottie was staying with cousins in Norfolk, and Fitzgerald himself oscillated between stays at Johns Hopkins Hospital and periods of fragile convalescence. Indeed, his friend H. L. Mencken wrote in a June 1934 diary entry that "the case of F. Scott Fitzgerald has become distressing. He is boozing in a wild manner and has become a nuisance. His wife, Zelda, who has been insane for years, is now confined at the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital, and he is living in Park Avenue with his little daughter, Scottie." During this time he was attended by Carma Kaufman Freeman, a Hopkins-trained nurse and the wife of Dr. George Freeman. Fitzgerald’s playful self-designation as “Old Insomniac” echoes the running joke between him and Carma—“Now you just go right to sleep” being her habitual reassurance when administering medication. The line would later shadow the reflections on sleeplessness in “The Crack-Up,” but here it appears in a far lighter register. This volume formed part of the small group of books and papers Carma retained from her time with Fitzgerald, including the autograph manuscript of Edgar Fawcett’s “The Other Side of the Moon” written out for her (see lot 1058) and her inscribed copy of Tender Is the Night (see lot 1057). Fitzgerald’s life in 1934 was difficult and complicated. His Ledger references a “collapse at home,” the “first Welbourne trip,” and “the nurse who was the doctor’s wife,” long misinterpreted by scholars but evidently referring to Carma Freeman. “Her Last Case,” written between visits to Welbourne and the Fishers’ house at Ruxton and published in fall 1934 in the Saturday Evening Post (for which Fitzgerald received an essential payment of $3,000), transforms his nurse into Bette Weaver, a young professional woman pulled between duty and suppressed emotion. Now recognized as one of Fitzgerald's most important stories about the South, it explores the lingering psychological impact of the Civil War, and the phenomenon of the "Lost Cause." REFERENCES Bruccoli, Matthew J., Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002; Daniel, Anne Margaret. "Medical advances: How F. Scott Fitzgerald's nurse inspired a fictional romance." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6224, 15 July 2022, p. 13 PROVENANCE Carma Kaufman Freeman; thence by descent

View 1 of Lot 1056: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | “Now you just go right to sleep” — This Side of Paradise, inscribed to his nurse, Carma Kaufman Freeman

fitzgerald, f. scott | “now you just go right to sleep” — this side of paradise, inscribed to his nurse, carma kaufman freeman

A photographic portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald.<ul><li>Carl Van Vechten (American).</li><li>Stamped in blind "Photograph by Carl Van Vechten", lower right of image.</li><li>This work is presented framed.</li></ul>

Photograph Portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> edition of The Great Gatsby by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=F.+Scott+Fitzgerald&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">F. Scott Fitzgerald</a>.<ul><li>F. Scott Fitzgerald (American).</li><li>London: The Grey Wallis Press, 1949.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>164 pages.</li><li>20th-century crushed brown morocco by Sangorski &amp; Sutcliffe, covers ruled in gilt, gilt spine in 6 compartments, all edges gilt.</li></ul> Bound by Sangorski &amp; Sutcliffe.&nbsp;A smartly bound example in crushed brown morocco by Sangorski &amp; Sutcliffe of Fitzgerald's iconic novel The Great Gatsby.

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