Fitzgerald: The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Hardcover – December 24, 1993
Description
From Publishers Weekly Literary detective Bruccoli has produced a remarkable feat of scholarship in this welcome critical edition of the novel Fitzgerald began during his final year (1940) while working in Hollywood as a screenwriter. Generally considered a roman a clef, the story charts the power struggle of self-made, overworked producer Monroe Stahr (modeled on MGM producer Irving Thalberg) with rival executive Pat Brady (a stand-in for MGM head Louis B. Mayer). It is also the story of Stahr's love affair with young widow Kathleen Moore and is (partly at least) narrated by Cecelia, Brady's cynical daughter who is hopelessly in love with Stahr. After Fitzgerald's death in December, his conflicting drafts for the novel were reworked by Edmund Wilson, who spliced episodes, moved around scenes and altered words and punctuation. Bruccoli, Fitzgerald biographer and editor of Cambridge's critical edition of The Great Gatsby , has restored Fitzgerald's original version and has also restored the narrative's ostensible working title, one that implies that Hollywood is the last American frontier where immigrants and their progeny remake themselves. Equally significant are other entries in this volume: Bruccoli's informative introduction; letters by Fitzgerald, Wilson and Maxwell Perkins; facsimiles of Fitzgerald's notes and drafts; and textual commentary, including helpful explanations of the novel's numerous topical references. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Based loosely on the life of movie mogul Irving Thalberg, this novel was left unfinished in rough form at the time of Fitzgerald's death. Soon after, a flawed version was hastily released under the makeshift title The Last Tycoon , which has been the only available edition. Now, however, in this second installment in Cambridge's series of critical editions of Fitzgerald's works (Classic Returns, LJ 9/15/91), renowned Fitzgerald scholar Bruccoli has reassembled the 17 existing--out of 31 planned--episodes, according to Fitzgerald's intentions. The volume also includes an introduction by Bruccoli providing insight into the book's inception and history plus extensive information on the text, including facsimiles of the original manuscript pages, and a list of Fitzgerald's intended corrections and working notes. Though there are snatches of brilliance throughout, the text is not polished to the fine luster readers expect of an author of this caliber, but, coupled with Scott's notes, it provides a significant glimpse into the creative faculties of one of literature's preeminent minds. The Cambridge edition of The Love of the Last Tycoon is a superlative literary Christmas present. Essential for all serious literature collections.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. "The Love of the Last Tycoon carries the authority of a great writer working very close to the top of his form. Only scholars will need to consult the 200 pages of extensive critical apparatus included in this edition. But anyone who admires Fitzgerald will want to take another look at the 129 pages of Tycoon text, now that they have at last been printed as he would have wanted them to be." Scott Donaldson, Chicago Tribune"...the Bruccoli version adds new, valuable, and important information regarding Fitzgerald's artistry, his knowledge of the film industry, and the accomplishment represented by what still must be regarded as work in progress....This book, essential for the support of detailed study of Fitzgerald and the American novel, may well replace the older Wilson version." Choice"...this novel has been considered the finest story of the Hollywood film industry during the age of the great studios. In this new edition Bruccoli presents us with Fitzgerald's manuscript drafts, revised typescripts, and notes, giving us not only the novel but its creation. And Bruccoli's introduction is itself a fascinating piece of research; a marvelous read." Books of the Southwest"This critical edition of Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel restores the author's original 1940 version..." American Literature"The production of the definitive edition, based upon a significant number of hand-and-type written MSS...is a notable achievement, made especially important and necessary because of the inchoate and incomplete state of the novel. The work offers a marvelous opportunity for readers and writers alike literally to watch a novel in the making..." David Noel Freedman, Michigan Quarterly review Book Description This critical edition of The Love of The Last Tycoon utilises Fitzgerald's manuscript drafts, revised typescipts, and working notes. Read more
Features & Highlights
- Cecilia Brady, the daughter of a great motion-picture producer, reminisces about events that began five years earlier when she was an undergraduate at Bennington College, starting with a flight home to Hollywood on a plane whose other passengers included Wylie White, a script writer down on his luck, Manny Schwartz, once an influential producer, and Monroe Stahr, another producer and partner of Cecilia's father, Pat Brady. Cecilia is attracted to Stahr, and he turns to her at the very time that he has a falling out with her father. Each of the partners conceives the idea of murdering the other. On the way to New York to establish an alibi, Stahr repents and decides to revoke his orders that will result in Brady's death, but his plane crashes before he can carry out his new plan and Cecilia loses both her father and the man she loves. Even in its incomplete form, The Love of The Last Tycoon: A Western has achieved a reputation as the best Hollywood novel. When F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 he had written seventeen of thirty projected episodes. In 1941 the "unfinished novel" was published in a text for general readers by Edmund Wilson under the title The Last Tycoon. For more than fifty years this edition has been the only one available. This critical edition of The Love of the Last Tycoon utilizes Fitzgerald's manuscript drafts, revised typescripts, and working notes to establish the first authoritative text of the work. This volume includes a detailed history of the gestation, composition, and publication of the novel; full textual apparatus with editorial notes; facsimiles of the drafts; and explanatory notes on topical allusions and historical references for contemporary readers. The reconstruction of Fitzgerald's plan for the thirteen unwritten episodes is particularly useful. F. Scott Fitzgerald's incomplete masterpiece is restored to its 1940 state, and thus made fully accessible for the first time.
