F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first published in New York City nearly 90 years ago. The story captures the essence and excesses
of the roaring 1920s on Long Island, where the Fitzgeralds moved after the birth
of their first baby. It was definitely a far cry from Fitzgerald's humble beginnings in Minnesota.The Great Gatsby is definitely a work of fiction but from their new waterfront home in New York, Fitzgerald would no doubt have observed for himself the “new money versus old money” dynamic, and his real-life neighbours surely inspired some of the juicy plot material that played out in the book.
From the outset, Fitzgerald was confident that The Great Gatsby would be his ticket to literary stardom, and he edited his “consciously artistic achievement” heavily. This proved an arduous process and the Fitzgeralds escaped to the French Riviera for the summer of 1923, where the first draft of the book was completed. Final editing took two more years, and The Great Gatsby was finally released in 1925.
The Great Gatsby wasn't Fitzgerald's preferred title for the book, and he didn't much like it, but his contemporaries and friends praised the work, and the critics were similarly encouraging. Unfortunately for Fitzgerald, sales of The Great Gatsby didn’t quite match this enthusiasm. He effectively fell off the literary radar, and he died in 1940 a rather forgotten man.
During the early days of World War 2, the US Armed Forces gave away 150,000 copies of The Great Gatsby to the American military. This contributed to a surge in Fitzgerald's popularity and by the 1960s, The Great Gatsby had been firmly cemented as an American literary classic, prompting the Modern Library to declare it the second-best English language novel of the 20th Century (behind Ulysses by James Joyce).
Whether you enjoyed Fitzgerald's novel or not, you can still come to New York and devote yourself to soaking up the Gatsbyesque lifestyle at the iconic Plaza Hotel, where some scenes of Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the work were filmed. Fitzgerald and Zelda were huge fans of the classic New York hotel, and you can relive their experiences by spalshing out to have classic high tea in the historic Palm Court, or be kinder to your wallet and just have a glass or two of bubbles in the hotel lobby's exclusive (yet not at all fussy) Champagne Bar.