The seminal biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Far Side of Paradise was the first ever biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, widely acclaimed as a sensitive, scholarly appraisal of the writer's life and work. With this revised edition, updated to include new information that has since surfaced, Arthur Mizener has created a definitive portrait of Fitzgerald - the man, his work, and his exciting, globe-trotting life.
He explores his childhood and formative years at Princeton University, as well as his chaotic marriage to Zelda Sayre and the years they spent in Paris together with writers and artists like Hemingway and Picasso. After becoming a chronicler of the 'flapper age' in the 1920s, Fitzgerald struggled with alcoholism and despair following his wife's diagnosis as a schizophrenic. In this fascinating biography, Mizener delves into the elements of Fitzgerald's own life that influenced The Great Gatsby, as well as his other acclaimed novels.
Fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald will find this an illuminating and revealing look into the man behind the books. Praise for The Far Side of Paradise:
'He tells it in an easy style throughout... it is the story of a highly gifted man who ruined himself by pursuing false ideals, who set out to redeem himself by patient effort and who had almost succeeded when he died - not of drinking, but of overwork, Fitzgerald's books are better known today than they were in his time, but his life as Mizener presents it is even more impressive than his fiction' - Malcolm Cowley
'So intriguing and his story so fascinating in itself that you are likely to overlook the skill required for an adequate presentment of him. Mizener's presentment has a delusive air of simplicity. But that is a measure of the discretion and sobriety of the biographer and the rigor with which he has subordinated the author of the book to its subject' - Yale Review
'Timely, scholarly, but never dull' - New York Times
Arthur Mizener was a professor of English at Cornell University.