When was The Great Gatsby first published?
The Great Gatsby was published by Charles Scribner's Sons on the 10th of April 1925. Fitzgerald had submitted the final manuscript in February 1925 after a winter of revisions in Rome.
Questions about The Great Gatsby
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Why did The Great Gatsby sell poorly when it first came out?
The novel sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October 1925, far short of the 75,000 Fitzgerald had hoped for. Fitzgerald attributed the poor sales partly to the fact that women were the primary novel-buying audience at the time, and Gatsby contained no admirable female character. Many critics also found the plot implausible or felt the book did not match his previous novels.
Who was the real-life inspiration for Jay Gatsby?
Fitzgerald drew heavily on his Long Island neighbor Max Gerlach, a former major in the American Expeditionary Forces who became a gentleman bootlegger, threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, and used the phrase "old sport" in his letters. Fitzgerald's wife Zelda also confirmed that Gerlach partly inspired the character.
What is the significance of the dust jacket art for The Great Gatsby?
The cover painting, called Celestial Eyes, was created by Barcelonan painter Francis Cugat and is considered among the most celebrated cover artworks in American literature. Fitzgerald told his editor Maxwell Perkins that he had incorporated Cugat's imagery directly into the novel's text. It was the only book cover Cugat ever designed.
How did The Great Gatsby become required reading in American schools?
The revival began during World War II, when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed 155,000 copies to U.S. soldiers overseas. By 1944, full scholarly reassessment was underway. By 1960, the book was selling 100,000 copies a year, and by the mid-2000s it was part of the assigned curricula in nearly the majority of U.S. high schools.
What title did F. Scott Fitzgerald originally want for The Great Gatsby?
Fitzgerald cycled through several alternatives, most persistently Trimalchio in West Egg, referencing the crude upstart in Petronius's Satyricon. His editor Maxwell Perkins persuaded him the reference was too obscure and unpronounceable. Both Perkins and Zelda Fitzgerald preferred The Great Gatsby, and Fitzgerald agreed reluctantly, later often expressing ambivalence about the final title.