Rare Books

Fitzgerald's library and his own published works have been one of the chief holdings of the department since 1951. There are more than 300 volumes by and about Fitzgerald on the shelves in the General Rare Book Collection. In addition, the Library has 318 books that were owned by Fitzgerald. For these, see the listing updated in December 2007, including at end the directions for finding annotated books in the College of One collection. (Title of this document is Books owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald Currently held in the Princeton University Library Compiled August 2001, revised December 2007, from lists dating from 1949, 1956, 1962, and cards found in the Association File.) The Collections File for the rare book division and comparable files for the manuscript collections have the original lists and other details about FSF's books.

An important highlight of the Library's Fitzgerald collection is that it holds first editions of all but four of the 34 separate publications of FSF, as identified by Matthew J. Bruccoli. See his F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Bibliography. Section A. (Pittsburgh, 1972) [(ExB) Z8301.2 .B69 and Supp.]. The Library also has numerous later printings of these separate publications and these holding have been marked in ExB copy 2 of Bruccoli. Several important novels are in their first edition dust jackets, but the Library lacks those for This Side of Paradise, Flappers and Philosophers, Tales of the Jazz Age, and Tender is the Night.

In the Manuscripts Division of the Library is Fitzgerald's own copy of The Great Gatsby and his own copy of Tender is the Night, both with corrections and annotations in his own hand. (See finding aid for collection number C0187.) Another highlight of the collection is the 119 separate editions of translations of works by Fitzgerald. The collection includes the first translation of a Fitzgerald novel into a foreign language (Gatsby le magnifique. Paris: Simon Kra, 1926) [(Ex) 3740.8.341.78], as well as numerous other more recent translations. A listing of the translations appears in the 1980 supplement of Bruccoli's bibliography.