Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage [Hardcover]

Kendall Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2001

Irresistibly charming, recklessly brilliant, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald epitomized everything that was beautiful and damned about the Jazz Age. But behind the legend, there was a highly complex and competitive marriage–a union not of opposites but almost of twins who both inspired and tormented each other, and who were ultimately destroyed by their shared fantasies. Now in this frank, stylish, superbly written new book, Kendall Taylor tells the story of the Fitzgerald marriage as it has never been told before.

Following the success of Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, Scott and Zelda took New York by storm. Scott was recognized as the greatest American author of the twenties and everyone was fascinated with Zelda, his ravishing young wife, known as the model for all his flapper heroines. Ultimately it all fell apart, and Kendall Taylor tells us why. Drawing on previously suppressed material, including crucial medical records, Taylor sheds fresh light on Zelda’s depths and mysteries–her rich but largely unrealized artistic talents, her own ambitions that were unfulfilled because she was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, her passionate love affairs. Zelda’s contribution to Scott’s fiction, which was based on her diaries, her letters, and her life, was her only great achievement–and for that she may have paid the terrible price of her own sanity.

In Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom, Kendall Taylor has created the definitive Fitzgerald biography. Written with sympathy, original insight, and dazzling style–and featuring memorable appearances from Edmund Wilson, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway, among others–this is a stunning portrait of a marriage, an age, and a fabulous but tragic woman.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this absorbing yet ultimately disappointing account of the legendary duo, Kendall, a cultural historian and former university professor, recounts the tragically dysfunctional marriage of two gifted yet mentally unstable individuals. The story is familiar: Scott and Zelda, "Manhattan's most sought-after couple, in demand at chic gatherings, parties and theatre openings" in the mid-1920s, never stopped partying. But by the late '20s, it was clear that Zelda suffered from mental illness and that Scott's drinking had become "desperate." Scott languished in the wake of The Great Gatsby, "borrowed" heavily from his wife's notebooks and believed that he alone (and not Zelda, whose novel, Save Me the Waltz, revealed unattractive truths about their marriage) had the right to tell their story feeding her illness. After her total mental collapse in 1930, she stayed in a series of sanitaria until her death in a fire in 1948. Kendall draws upon "previously undisclosed information"; her most noteworthy contribution is her chilling documentation of Zelda's mental health and treatment by elite doctors with experimental approaches to schizophrenia in the 1930s and '40s including electro-convulsive therapy and injections of horse blood. Though it's the first study of the Fitzgeralds that treats Zelda as equal subject matter, it lacks a cogent context and the focus Kendall might have achieved had she studied Zelda alone (as a needed update to Nancy Milford's Zelda, 1970). Zelda, Kendall claims, "wanted... equal footing and an identity apart from her famous husband," but was "thwarted in that goal by a lack of direction." Despite abundant material, this book suffers a similar ailment. 16 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Betsy Nolan. (On-sale Aug. 28)Forecast: A five-city author tour, radio interviews and ample advertising may initially revive interest in the Fitzgeralds, but don't expect big ongoing sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Much has been written about the celebrity marriage of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. Taylor, a Fulbright scholar, cultural historian, and former professor, weighs in with a well-written, comprehensive book that explores the "folie ? deux that bound them together and sustained them both, even as it destroyed them." Her main focus is Zelda's youthful resolve and, later, her inability to build an identity for herself, and she also considers the reckless couple's mutual denigrations and Scott's constant use of Zelda as material. Taylor begins the tale in Montgomery, AL, then proceeds to trace the couple from celebrity in 1920s New York and Paris to Zelda's hospitalizations and Scott's incurable alcoholism. Taylor charts this complex story of frenetic spiritual squalor and mutual doom with curiosity and insight. His work does not replace the standard biographies but is a valuable complement. Scott Hightower, Fordham Univ., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (August 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345447158
• ISBN-13: 978-0345447159
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #798,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tragedy Worthy of Shakespeare, July 24, 2003

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

As an English major in college, I was required to reach much of F. Scott Fitzgerald, most particularly "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender Is the Night." And like many others of my ilk, I fell madly in love with the legend that was the Fitzgeralds. I went on to read everything I could get my hands on, from Scott's collected short stories to "The Beautiful and the Damned" to "This Side of Paradise" to the tragically unfinished "The Last Tycoon."

Through all of my Fitzgerald worship, I viewed Zelda as an "also-ran"--the madcap flapper, the passionate spouse and lover, the quintessential "roaring 20s girl," the great beauty who was her husband's muse-until she went crazy. I never took her seriously as an artist in her own right, and why should I have done so? Certainly until recent years, no biography of Fitzgerald painted her that way, and I found the few biographies of Zelda opinionated and suspect.

Now, with a fascinating work that took author Kendall Taylor 30 years (!!) to write, the tragedy that was Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald finally comes to light as never before. And for the first time, I realize that the incredibly brilliant prose that made up Scott's novels was often lifted VERBATIM from Zelda's most intimate and personal diaries, which Scott viewed as his own property, to be purloined at will. I find that some of his most cunning and original turn of phrase was taken VERBATIM from Zelda's unique, brilliant, colorful, and wholly her own way of speaking (probably, in fact, a precurser of the schizophrenia that was to overtake her). I find that Scott was so possessive of Zelda as his SOURCE that he actively forbade her to write on her own, although she showed great talent. He went so far as to write long letters to her various doctors forbidding them to allow her to write, and they agreed to do so! A highly creative, completely unique human being, Zelda was thwarted at every turn, whether her painting (which Scott ridiculed) her sad attempts to become a prima ballerina (equally ridiculed and the final step to her first breakdown) to anything else she attempted to do.

Scott, a difficult, vain, selfish and jealous human being, viewed Zelda as more than his lover and wife, as more than his helpmate and muse. He felt he owned the very words that fell from her mouth, and strongly resisted any attempt on her part to express herself apart from him, feeling that their mutual story belonged to him and him alone, as the novelist and breadwinner.

We all know the end of the story. Scott died much too young of heart disease and TB brought on by acute alcoholism. Zelda, in and out of mental hospitals from her late twenties on, died in a horrible fire at the institution where she was housed. These two bright flames, these two icons of The Jazz Age, these two physically gorgeous people, the flapper and her swain, were doomed from the start. But until the recent death of their only daughter, Scottie Lanahan, many of their papers, letters, diaries, and so forth, remained unavailable to the public. Taylor was given unprecedented access to these, and tells her tale in as objective a way as she can, given her subject matter. One must commend Ms. Taylor for her Herculean efforts and her fascinating story. Unfortunately, like many authors of today, she has fallen victim to the same bad editing that plagues most paperbacks in today's marketplace. Therefore, the paperback version of this book (which is the version I read) is plagued by silly grammatical mistakes and typos that Scott OR Zelda would have noticed. It isn't fair to Taylor, but so be it. Suffice to say that, upon reading the very last sentence of the very last page, I broke into sobs. I now wish to go on and read Zelda's collected works (available from Amazon!), view all her artwork (ditto) and reread Scott's works-from the viewpoint of all I know now. I commend Ms. Taylor on a simply brilliant job.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes Madness is Wisdom: scenes from a marriage, September 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage (Hardcover)

The Fitzgeralds have been the subjects of numerous biographies; Zelda by Nancy Milford focused on Mrs. Fitzgerald specifically. Kendall Taylor has written a detailed treatment, based on extensive research, of the Fitzgeralds and their tragic relationship. Ms. Taylor's research was based on interviews with family and acquaintances and examination of their letters and records. She recounts their years as a golden couple in the 1920s where they lived in the U.S. and as expatriates in Paris, with the Hemingways and other writers and artists. The central tragedy was Zelda's descent into madness at the end of the 1920s; for the rest of her life she would be in and out of institutions. Zelda's medical condition and prescribed treatments (including hydrotherapy and shock therapy) are described. Today, perhaps, new medications on the market would have saved Zelda much agony. Zelda Fitzgerald's tragedy was compounded by the fact that it was a genetic condition; her brother and grandson were also afflicted by schizophrenia. Scott Fitzgerald's alcoholism also was highly destructive and undoubedtly caused his premature death. Much is said here about Zelda Fitzgerald's creative nature--she painted and wrote novels and short stories. Her obsession for the ballet helped to bring on her illness. Ms. Taylor emphasizes Mrs. Fitzgerald's creativity in art and literature and describes the ways her husband would stifle it. The author discusses that Zelda was used as an inspiration for her husband and some of her letters and diaries were published verbatim in his novels. Kendall Taylor's book is recommended to those interested in the Fitzgeralds; several new revelations are provided about Zelda Fitzgerald. More is also learned about their often put upon daughter, Scottie Fitzgerald.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate effort, November 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage (Hardcover)

The subject matter here is no doubt fascinating, but this effort leaves us guessing why. We're left with the troubling impression that Zelda was raised to rely on every gift except substance, and that she ultimately suffered from the realization that life is best -- or only -- lived substantively. Not exactly a piece of original thinking, and one searches in vain for more lasting lessons, or even ideas. What makes this search so ultimately fruitless is the author's decided lack of skill, both as researcher and chronicler, and the disturbing suspicion that this "biography" is nothing more than a personal attempt by the author to don Zelda's party clothes, to be the belle of the ball, or to be -- even temporarily -- interesting. Sad, and profoundly unfair to the subjects of this needlessly lengthy piece of "Page 6" journalism. Scott and Zelda deserve much more.