For the Love of Fitz

For some time now, I have been obsessed with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Several years ago, I re-read The Great Gatsby, the first time since high school, and instantly became fascinated with its author. Since then, I have read multiple biographies, travelled to areas that F. Scott lived and wrote about, and paid my respects at his grave. In my continuing search into the author’s life, I recently came across a book called The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginerva King, His First Love by James L.W. West III. Over time, Ginerva King has been viewed as truly influential on F. Scott’s work; but the shallow characters that were modeled after her as well as her never having talked about her relationship with the author, has led many to think of Ginerva as a cold and superficial woman. However, West’s book brings further insight into Ginerva King and the environment in which she and F. Scott fell in love.

“A fascinating look inside the world of Ginerva King, Fitzgerald’s first and crucially important love. Without her rejection of him, many of Fitzgerald’s greatest stories and novels might never have been written.”

– Review of The Perfect Hour, by Scott Donaldson, author and Fitzgerald scholar.

On the evening of January 4, 1915, Scott met the girl who would become his first great love and who would serve as an inspiration for some of his most famous fictional heroines. Ginerva King was the daughter of a wealthy Chicago stockbroker, grew up in wealth and was a part of the Chicago bourgeoisie. She was considered a beauty, had many adoring beaus, and was a self proclaimed flirt. “During the summer of 1914, in an act of arrogance that could probably only be managed by a group of fifteen-year-old girls, Ginerva and three of her friends had declared themselves to be the ‘Big Four’ – the four most attractive and socially desirable young women in Chicago. They had not consulted anyone about this; they simply anointed themselves” (West, 8). When she met Scott, she was in her sophomore year at Westover, a small Connecticut boarding school. That winter, the sixteen year old was visiting classmate Marie Hersey in St. Paul, MN. During her stay, Marie threw an informal party in honor of her guest; Scott Fitzgerald was on the guest list.

Scott had been on winter break from Princeton and the party fell on the day before he was to return to school. He was so smitten by Ginerva as soon as he laid eyes on her at the party, he decided to postpone his return for another day. After attending a dance the following night, but not having much time alone, Ginerva and Scott said their goodbyes and promised to write. That night, Ginerva wrote in her diary, “Danced and sat with Scott most of the evening”… “He left for Princeton at 11 – oh --!” Following that farewell, they wrote each other lengthy expressive letters, sometimes twenty pages in length; they exchanged photographs, quoted poetry, sent humorous drawings, and gossiped about acquaintances and movie stars. Ginerva was quite taken by Scott’s letters of devotion and the amusing tone of his writing.

Scott and Ginerva’s two year romance was long distance; the couple rarely saw each other in person. Months in, Ginerva wrote to Scott, “We see each other so little that it is funny,”… “I told you, didn’t I, that I figured out that we have seen each other for exactly 15 hours.” However, there were several occasions when Scott managed to spend time with Ginerva. One such visit took place at the King home in Lake Forest, IL, an affluent city preoccupied with social status and family money. F. Scott, an Irish Catholic from modest means was out of his element in Lake Forest, and he knew he was out of place hobnobbing with the rich. It is clear that these early encounters in wealthy circles effected F. Scott’s writings. Ginerva’s father during this visit is quoted as saying to Scott, “Poor boys shouldn’t think of marrying rich girls…” This line ended up in Scott’s first novel This Side of Paradise. In fact, the entire romance with Ginerva appears to have influenced the writer tremendously as the major themes throughout Fitzgerald’s works involve issues of the poor versus the rich and the desire for acceptance and social status.

Over time, the long distance relationship between Scott and Ginerva lost its luster. Scott had become jealous and concerned with Ginerva’s potential other suitors; Ginerva tired of Scott’s lack of confidence in her affections and was interested in other boys who were among the wealthy social set. These factors coupled with the distance, led to the end of their romance in January 1917. Fitzgerald was upset about Ginerva’s rejection and never forgot the sting.

Throughout their correspondence, it is clear that Scott was constantly building a character sketch of Ginerva and eventually idealized her in his mind. She is said to have been the model for the character Daisy Buchannan in The Great Gatsby, who is depicted as a beautiful and charming socialite, but shallow, fickle, and sardonic. It is also said that Fitzgerald also modeled several other characters after her as well; Rosiland Connage in This Side of Paradise (1920), Kismine Washington in “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” (1922), and Judy Jones in “Winter Dreams” (1922), to name but a few.

Eventually Ginerva married William H. Mitchell, who was the son of a prominent bank president in Chicago; F. Scott famously married Zelda Sayre. However, over the years following their romance as teenagers, they kept tabs on each other’s lives. In October 1937, upon hearing that Ginerva was planning to visit California, Scott arranged to meet with Ginerva. By that time, Scott had been living in Hollywood trying to make a living writing screenplays. In a letter to his daughter Scottie prior to the reunion, he wrote about his nervousness about the meeting.

“She was the first girl I ever loved and I have faithfully avoided seeing her up to this moment to keep the illusion perfect, because she ended up by throwing me over with the most supreme boredom and indifference. I don’t know if I should go or not. It would be very, very strange. These great beauties are often something else at thirty-eight, but Ginerva had a great deal besides beauty.”

They met at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for lunch, reminisced about the past, and it overall went well. Scott had told Ginerva that he was on the wagon and he did not drink throughout the lunch. However, after the bill had been paid and they moved to the bar to meet one of her friends, Scott ordered several shots of gin and a Tom Collins. “At some point they began discussing his fiction, and she asked him which characters he had based on her. ‘Which bitch do you think you are?’ he said. On this note the reunion ended” (West, 87).

It is obvious that Ginerva had left an indelible mark on Fitzgerald, but did he have an effect on her. Although he was perhaps one of many admirers, it is clear from her many diary entries that Scott’s letters really touched her heart. The fact that Ginerva never capitalized on her romance with the author could suggest that she did not care, however, as West points out, “… it must have pleased her, at least a little, to know that he had become a major writer, that she had been his first love, and that he had never forgotten her” (West, 107).

“Honestly and truly, it would be wonderful to have that perfect hour, sometime someday and somewhere.”

– Ginerva to Scott, January 31, 1916