Do you remember the first time you read “The Great Gatsby?” What about the first time you saw the iconic blue cover with its two sad eyes peering out from a midnight sky? It’s hard to believe that when F. Scott Fitzgerald published his now famous work in 1925, it sank to the bottom of the Long Island Sound, met with critical and commercial apathy. It wasn’t until World War II that the book found success, soaring into the public consciousness and taking its place among the “great American novels.”

Around the room, you’ll find images of items that tell the story behind Fitzgerald’s iconic book. From the drawings that accompanied the first appearance of the story in Scribner’s Magazine to pages from the original manuscript written by Fitzgerald and edited by Maxwell Perkins, and the painting that inspired the cover (“Celestial Eyes”). There are the reader cards from Shakespeare and Company members who checked the book out of Sylvia Beach’s infamous lending library and pages from Fitzgerald’s personal scrapbook.

Join Special Collections as it celebrates and interrogates “The Great Gatsby.

Jennifer Garcon, Librarian for Modern & Contemporary Special Collections

Emma Sarconi, Reference and Outreach Specialist