Master the 40: The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
In 1929 F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Ernest Hemingway that because his short stories now earned $4000 a pop he was "an old whore" who had "mastered the 40 positions" when "in her youth one was enough." But were the upwards of 180 stories he cranked out when not writing The Great Gatsby really the work of a literary prostitute selling out his talent for a fast buck? Kirk Curnutt and Robert Trogdon don't think so. Each episode they draw a random title from a hat and explore its place in Fitzgerald's career, in the magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post or Esquire where it may have appeared, and in the overall development of the American short story. Along the way, they talk literary politics, history, and gossip from the 1920s and 1930s, rediscovering the lively personalities and rivalries that tried to define the porous boundaries between commercial and artistic fiction, between the popular and the avant-garde, between the forgotten and the canonized.
Master the 40: The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Latest Episodes
"The Long Way Out"
Published in Esquire in September 1937, "The Long Way Out" could possibly be the best F. Scott Fitzgerald short story nobody has ever paid attention to---not even seasoned scholars. Set in a sanitarium, the plot involves a traumat...
Special episode: The Racial Uncanny in "The Dance"
While we're editing our next episode (out before the end of the month!), we're very excited to share this adaptation of Fitzgerald's "The Dance," which first appeared in Red Book exactly 100 years ago. Although not widely known, "...
"A Short Trip Home"
Published December 17, 1927 in the Saturday Evening Post, "A Short Trip Home" is most notable as one of a handful of supernatural short stories F. Scott Fitzgerald published throughout his career. Indeed, the Post&nb...
