The Basil, Josephine, and Gwen Stories

Description

This volume brings together three series of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald - the Basil Duke Lee stories of 1928-29, the Josephine Perry stories of 1930-31, and the Gwen Bowers stories of 1936. The texts published here are based on surviving typescripts that preserve Fitzgerald's final revisions for their first publication in the Saturday Evening Post. Collations have revealed cuts and revisions by the Post editors aimed at removing profanity and blasphemy, sexual innuendo, real names of people and places, and references to racial prejudice. These passages have been restored to the Cambridge texts. This volume includes a scholarly introduction, a record of variants, facsimiles and other illustrations, and an appendix that presents early endings for the stories 'The Captured Shadow' and 'Basil and Cleopatra'. Full historical notes identify popular songs, sports heroes, literary works, Broadway shows, and sources for the stories.

James L. W. West III is Sparks Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.