Book notes | The Last Tycoon
The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Hollywood, the movies, and the people who made them—the “dream factory,” as the motion picture industry came to be known.
Fitzgerald worked in Hollywood long enough to write the novel from the inside out. But The Last Tycoon is hardly a Babylon Hollywood tell-all. In fact, there is only one instance where Fitzgerald received film credit, and that was only as a minor screenplay contributor.
The Last Tycoon takes place around 1935. Fitzgerald worked on the book from the spring of 1939 to the time of his death in December 1940, a mere one and a half years. What remained was little more than half of the intended book.
Seventeen of the 30 projected episodes were in draft form. Other than that, there were hundreds of pages of notes and outlines and correspondence with the publisher.
It was a work in progress.
From this abundance of material, the well-known critic and Fitzgerald’s former college friend Edmund Wilson edited the manuscript to its 1941 published edition. A subsequent edition, The Love of the Last Tycoon published in 1993, includes Wilson’s material plus Fitzgerald’s letters to the publisher with copious outlines. A close associate, Sheilah Graham, built on these outlines to provide an ending and an epilogue.
Perhaps this sounds like a patchwork novel of uneven construction. But, even in this incomplete form, some regard it as the best of Fitzgerald. It is a compelling rendering of an archetypal American hero, a full embodiment of the American Dream.
Monroe Stahr, son of Jewish immigrants, is successful, widely respected, and, at his core, a responsible, disciplined genius in the film industry. Although the character of Stahr is loosely based on the life of Irving Thalberg, a celebrated Hollywood executive, it can be understood as autobiographical.
Fitzgerald novels were well received in his lifetime, but there were also many unhappy extended intervals of work much despised by Fitzgerald, in advertising and the Hollywood years.
In summary, the novel is a beautifully rendered story of the tension of a culture aspiring to creativity but dominated by cynicism, greed, and commercial imperatives.
The Last Tycoon was well received by UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club members and made for a congenial round of discussion.
—Dorothy Marden, Fourth Friday Book Club member
Book Club II to meet June 25
Fri, Jun 25 2021, 2pm
The Fourth Friday Book Club selection for its meeting at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 25, is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last and most acclaimed novel, The Last Tycoon.
About the author
A native of St Paul, Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, which he left in 1917 to join the Army. It is said that Fitzgerald epitomized the Jazz Age, an age inhabited by a generation he defined as “… grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” The Last Tycoon is the last of his five novels: This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tender is the Night.
To quote The New York Times in a November 9, 1941, review of The Last Tycoon: “Of all our novelists, Fitzgerald was by temperament and his gifts the best fitted to explore and reveal the inner world of the movies and of the men who made them. He had lived and worked in Hollywood long enough to write from the inside out; the material was clay in his hands.”
On the one hand, it is a novel of the moral decadence of Hollywood in its heyday. And then, again quoting the Times, “… there is the literary craftsmanship, the vitality in every line he wrote, the pleasure of watching Fitzgerald’s mind at work.”
New members are welcome!
Please contact Dorothy Marden or Margaret Catambay to learn more.
—Dorothy Marden, Fourth Friday Book Club member
Upcoming Events
Our July 15 "hike" is going to be a kayaking adventure on Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) and Lake of the Isles! If you don't have a kayak (or paddleboard), Wheel Fun Rentals, located next to the new concession stand rents single kayaks at $15 an hour and double kayaks at $25. The second hour is free if we rent before noon. Life jackets are provided with the rental.
Laura Ericksen will lead the discussion of How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger, a true story by a speech-language pathologist who taught her dog, Stella, to communicate using buttons associated with different words.
Our August 5 hike will be a reprise of our hike last summer at William O'Brien State Park. This is a beautiful park with a winding trail and a great view of the countryside. The hike is about 5.5 to 6 miles and we'll go at a moderate pace with frequent water breaks. After the hike, we will eat lunch at Rustic Roots Winery, a half mile north of the park.
Kathy Cramer will lead the discussion of The Bookbinder by Pip Williams, a book set in 1914 Oxford chronicling the life of Peggy who works in the University bindery, but craves a life beyond binding books but to being a scholar herself.
Enjoy a two-hour cruise on the Jonathan Padelford, leaving from the Harriet Island dock in St. Paul, boarding time at 5:30 p.m. We will have a brief program on board by Patrick Nunnally from the River Life Program of the Institute on the Environment.
August 31 is the due date for annual reports and updates. Annual Reports, Toolkits, web page updates, operating document updates and archives collections are all due each year on this date.
Autumn is a wonderful season in Minnesota so plan to join UMRA at the Andersen Horticultural Library at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Kristen Mastel, head librarian and curator, will reveal its treasure trove of publications and artifacts relating to plant history, horticulture, and natural history. After the tour, those who are interested may stay to eat lunch together, sitting outside if the weather is nice. Later, you are invited to a one-hour tram tour of the entire Arboretum that includes natural areas of flowering shrubs, bogs, and forests, family garden and landscaping showpieces, and the red barn farm
After a summer break the UMRA Photo Club will next meet September 10, 2024 in the meeting room of the Hennepin County St. Anthony Branch Library. For those interested in lunch, meet at the Great Dragon at 11:30 am. For September the THEME will be Curves
We will continue to discuss the pros and cons of Medicare Advantage. You will also hear about notable non-health plan and non-broker resources.