Early sketches for The Great Gatsby cover by Francis Cugat. Pair with the most intelligent meditation on the recent Gatsby cover controversy.
“When someone asks, ‘Which three books have meant the most to you?’ I can answer without having to think: The Great Gatsby, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. All three have been indispensable to me (both as a reader and as a writer); yet if I were forced to select only one, I would unhesitatingly choose Gatsby. Had it not been for Fitzgerald’s novel, I would not be writing the kind of literature I am today.” - Haruki Murakami
YUSSSSSSSSSSS.
Baz Luhrmann Wants to Remake ‘Hamlet’ With Leonardo DiCaprio
But I would be SO MUCH HAPPIER about this than Gatsby.
Happy 88th birthday to the Great American Novel.
Moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.
Photo and letter found in a book together.
November 29, 1961
Dear Miss —,
Your kind reply has just reached me.
I am very sorry I wrote on a letter only “K. —” each time. My first name is “—” and it’s — in American style.
What is your real first name?
Of course I like the name of Scahlett, but it is fictitious, as “Gone with the wind.” What are you called by your friends?
It is good that you are dancing and busy for your lessons.
I think your Spanish dance over Television was so wonderfull and beautifull. Why do you know about “Geisha girls”?
You have read a some book about Japan, haven’t you?
I went to Madrid of Spain this January and saw Spanish dance at a night Club. I could spend a lovely night there, also I visited to Toledo, old small town. Spain is very quite and nice country, I think. I like all about Spain, do you?
Had you learned Spanish language at your school? I had learned English and Germany at school. I can speak English and Germany a little, but I can read and write them almost.
If you don’t understand my English letter, I will write in Germany language next time.
It is very cold To-night, and will be soon snow in Tokyo.
Since I visited to Baltimore, it will past about a year.
I think it is cold in Baltimore like Tokyo.
Hoping you are in sound health.
Yours Truly.
—
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) Cahier 12, 1909, NAF 16652 Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), Paris, France, © BnF, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais. (via)
“She was dazzling—alight; it was agony to comprehend her beauty in a glance.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
MY LIFE CAN END NOW.
F. Scott Fitzgerald - first editions
(Source: inessentialhouses, via the-library-and-step-on-it)
Look at these wonderful hardback editions <3 The Great Gatsby and Flappers and Philosophers arrived today; I already owned Tales of the Jazz Age. Aren’t they gorgeous?
I love these editions. I have two of them. The black Flappers though is gorgeous.
I am half agony, half hope.
(Source: quote-book)
If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.
(Source: quote-book)
