The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby • Fitzgerald was never satisfied with The Great Gatsby as the title. • His thoughts on the title: It is “…weak because there is no emphasis even ironically on his greatness or lack of it.”

2. Other possible titles: • Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires (working title) • Fitzgerald’s editor didn’t like this one: he thought it was weak.

3. Other possible titles: • On the Road to West Egg • Trimalchio in West Egg • Trimalchio

4. Who is Trimalchio? • Trimalchio was the lavish host of elaborate parties in The Satyricon, a Latin work by Petronius. • Trimalchio also means a freedman, who through hard work and perseverance, attains wealth • Fitzgerald’s use of the word: “It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night – and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.” (chapter 7)

5. Other possible titles: • Gold-Hatted Gatsby • High-bouncing Lover

6. Where do these titles come from? • These titles come from a poem Fitzgerald wrote but attributed to the main character in his first novel This Side of Paradise.

7. The Poem Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high bouncing lover, I must have you!” Thomas Parke D’Invilliers This Side of Paradise

8. Frantic telegram • On March 19, 1925, three weeks before publication, Fitzgerald cabled Maxwell Perkins, his editor: • “Crazy about the title Under the Red White and Blue. What would delay be?” • By then it was too late.

9. The History of the Cover Art

10. The History of the Cover Art • Celestial Eyes, Francis Cugat's painting for the cover of The Great Gatsby, was the result of an unusual collaboration between Fitzgerald and Cugat. • Normally, an artist creates the cover art AFTER the author completes the novel and designs the art around a significant event in the text. • However, in this case, Cugat’s artwork was created BEFORE Fitzgerald finished Gatsby and saved just for him.

11. The History of the Cover Art • We know that Fitzgerald saw Cugat’s artwork at some point because he said in a letter to his editor in 1924, that he had actually "written it [the painting] into" his novel. • No one knows for sure what Fitzgerald meant by this, to what part of his book he was referring, or even which parts of Cugat’s artwork he saw. • And, little is known about the artist, Francis Cugat. • However, despite the mysteries, two hypothesesabout the finished cover art, Celestial Eyes, have become predominant.

12. The History of the Cover Art • That the eyes on the cover refer to the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg, which overlook the Valley of the Ashes from a billboard. Fitzgerald describes them as "blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose."

13. The History of the Cover Art • That the eyes are the eyes of Daisy, who Fitzgerald describes as a "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs" of New York at night.

14. The History of the Cover Art • The mystery continues… • There are actually 8 preliminary pieces Cugat designed PRIOR to the finished piece. • It is possible that Fitzgerald never saw the finished piece, Celestial Eyes, until it appeared on the cover of the finished novel. • The question remains: When Fitzgerald told his editor that he had written the painting into his novel, which piece was he talking about…

15. The History of the Cover Art Cugat’s preliminary sketch of railroad scene. Charcoal with pen-and-ink, watercolor and gouache on paper.

16. The History of the Cover Art Second, enlarged version of railroad scene. Charcoal with pen-and-ink, watercolor and gouache on paper.

17. The History of the Cover Art • These first two sketches seem to “fit” better with Fitzgerald’s working title Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires. • BUT – look at the next 6 sketches….

18. The History of the Cover Art Sketch of face over house, with details of weeping eye. Pencil and crayon on paper.

19. The History of the Cover Art Sketch of face over Long Island Sound. Pencil and crayon on paper.

20. The History of the Cover Art Sketch of face over New York skyline. Pencil, crayon, charcoal and gouache on paper.

21. The History of the Cover Art Study of faces over carnival lights. Pencil and watercolor on paper.

22. The History of the Cover Art Study of face and geometric patterns. Pencil on paper.

23. The History of the Cover Art Sketch of nocturnal carnival. Crayon over oil on board.

24. The History of the Cover Art Cugat’s final jacket painting. Princeton University Library.

25. Interesting trivia… • Cugat was paid $100 for his painting • Decades after it was used as the jacket cover for the novel, the original painting was found in a trash can of publishing “dead matter” at Scribners Publishing. • It was found by an employee and given to Mr. Scribner, who kept it in his home for several years. • Eventually, he donated it to the Princeton University Library, where it resides today with many other letters and documents about Fitzgerald.