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David Perlmutter's avatar

It's likely Fitzgerald might have been richer had he not had to devote so much of his money to Zelda's medical care, but that he did so is a very obvious sign of his love for her.

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Kern Carter's avatar

Absolutely. His friends even tried to talk him into spending less on Zelda's healthcare. He refused.

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Jenni Johnson's avatar

And he had 122 rejections before his first pub! Encouraging to keep going 💪🏻

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Kern Carter's avatar

Good note! Thanks for that. Didn't know about that but it certainly adds to the importance of perseverance in this writing industry.

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Carrington Epperson's avatar

Wow he was RICH. Sad that it was from the writing he didn’t want to do really. But it is what it is. Thanks for compiling this research

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Kern Carter's avatar

Yeah, he made a lot of money. So interesting that it was mostly from short stories and he dreaded writing them.

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Nicholas Poulios's avatar

Hard to believe he made so much money from writing short stories. I suppose it is a number games, in Scott's era there were certainly less authors than today and therefore a bigger pie for 'small pool of authors to make regular income. Today we have seen the closure of many Lit Mags. We have witnessed (social media) the freelancing jobs; the gig economy, writers chasing sparse offerings. Not to mention a decline in readership due to the short attention economy. Your analysis is interesting though. Maybe small Indie publishing houses in niche markets may arrest the decline ... but we can dismiss all that ...we all love writing right ?

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Kern Carter's avatar

We certainly do. And yeah, a numbers game for sure, but also a different industry. The fact that he could even make a living from short stories is not something that exists today, not in the same way. Different times, different problems and different opportunities.

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Jeanne Malmgren's avatar

Fascinating!

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Kern Carter's avatar

It is, isn't it??

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Caroline Donahue's avatar

This is so eye-opening. I wonder how much subscriptions to the magazines he wrote for were and how many subscribers they had. The way literature trends change fascinates me. Making big bucks from short stories feels unattainable now. And it was likely unattainable for many at the time Fitzgerald was writing. But there was a hungry audience of readers for stories. I can't wait to read more of this series!

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