Facsimile editions of the The Great Gatsby holograph (Microcard Editions Books, 1973; Editions des Saints Pères, 2017) and of Fitzgerald's other manuscripts (Bruccoli, ed., Garland Books, 1970), as well as microfilm of the manuscripts and scrapbooks are available.

The majority of the materials were in F. Scott Fitzgerald's possession at the time of his death in 1940. Frances Scott ("Scottie") Fitzgerald Lanahan (later Smith), the daughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, donated the papers to the Princeton University Library in 1950. Some accession numbers associated with this collection are AM 14450, AM 20502, and AM 14786, with additions made to the collection over time until that practice was discontinued.

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

In May 1999, the Princeton University Library was awarded a federal grant under the "Save America's Treasures" program, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to deacidify, repair, and rehouse the F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers. Work was completed in August 2001.

In 2021 and 2022, rehousing and metadata enhancement was completed to prepare materials for digitization, with assistance from August Roberts '25 in March 2022. The finding aid was revised by Amy C. Vo in March 2022 and October 2022.

Since 1950, the Princeton University Library has been successful in acquiring additional manuscripts and related materials to complement the F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers. These materials include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Additional Papers (C0188), comprised of Fitzgerald manuscripts, letters, memorabilia, and other materials donated by the author's family, friends, and publishers; the Fitzgerald estate papers retained by his executor John Biggs (C0628); the author's extensive correspondence with his editor Maxwell Perkins, in the Charles Scribner's Sons Records (C0101); posthumous Fitzgerald files in the archives of his literary agency, Harold Ober Associates (C0129); the Craig House Medical Records of Zelda Fitzgerald (C0745); and the Fitzgerald files of his biographer Arthur Mizener (C0634). Fitzgerald letters are found in other Princeton manuscript collections, which can be identified using the MASC (Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections) online database at: http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/databases/masc.html. The Rare Books Division holds Fitzgerald first editions and inscribed books, annotated books from Fitzgerald's personal library, and the "College of One Collection," donated by his friend Sheilah Graham. There are selected items in the Visual Materials Collection and in University Archives.

Together with the F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers, these rich holdings have made Princeton the world center for primary research on Fitzgerald for more than a half century. As a result, innumerable monographs, scholarly articles, critical editions, and media adaptations based on the Fitzgerald Papers have been written and published since the papers came to Princeton over 50 years ago. Potential researchers are strongly urged to consult the standard Fitzgerald biographies, critical studies, descriptive bibliographies and other widely available scholarly works before considering a research trip to the Princeton University Library. For a general introduction, see Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951); Matthew J. Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981); Matthew J. Bruccoli, F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972) and Supplement to F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980 ); The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, and Joan P. Kerr (New York: Scribner, 1974).

For University Archives records relating to Fitzgerald and/or Princeton during the period he was an undergraduate, please contact the Mudd Manuscript Library.

Also of interest:

Zelda Fitzgerald Papers (C0183): Box 7 - Family scrapbook (circa 1917-1926), contains clippings, photographs, and memorabilia of Zelda Fitzgerald and her family.

General Manuscripts Bound (C0199) Oversize - 9 scrapbook volumes (1926-1986), containing newspaper clippings, photographs, and theater programs relating to F. Scott Fitzgerald, his family and associates, compiled by Eleanor Hazard.

Books: Fitzgerald's library and his own published works have been one of the chief holdings of the department since 1951. There are 300 volumes by and about Fitzgerald on the shelves in the rare book collections. See the Collections Files (Vertical files) for both the rare book and the manuscript collections under FSF for lists and other details about FSF's books. The Provenance file offers immediate access to some of FSF's books held at Princeton. See listing updated during August 2001 ( http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/misc/Fitzgerald.pdf). 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 Manuscript 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. 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, 1926), as well as numerous other more recent translations. A listing of the translations appears in the 1980 supplement of Bruccoli's bibliography. An important microfilm held by the Library is a two reel film of books in Sheilah Graham's personal library that were annotated by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Call number for the film is: (Film) MICROFILM 07287. (Film made circa 1961.) Fitzgerald undertook personally to educate his close friend, Sheilah Graham, in a course of study which came to be known as the College of One. Graham documented the story of the College of One in her book of that title. The curriculum which Fitzgerald prepared for her covered a broad spectrum of topics, but was especially strong in contemporary literature. It included: history, poetry, English, American, French, and Russian literature, music, art, and philosophy. In 1968, Graham presented Princeton Library with the books which she used in her College of One education. Some are formally inscribed by Fitzgerald, but others have notes by him in the margins, as well as casual jottings such as grocery lists. There are 246 volumes in the College of One Collection ( http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/misc/College_of_One.pdf). The College of One Collection is separately shelved and arranged and has the Departmental location designator of: Coll. of One. See Department location file for details regarding physical whereabouts of the collection. There is a checklist of the collection, which is catalogued with call number: Z1035.xP7.1979 and (Ex) Z1035.xP7.1979.

People

• Fitzgerald, Zelda, 1900-1948

Subject

• American fiction -- 20th century
• American literature -- 20th century
• Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence
• Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Manuscripts
• Motion picture plays
• Novelists, American -- 20th century

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Finding Aid Date

2002

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

This collection is currently undergoing conservation review and digitization efforts. Some materials may be temporarily unavailable. Please consult staff if you have questions about the status of any material. Due to the fragility of Fitzgerald's original scrapbooks, researchers must use surrogates of these materials. Digital copies of the manuscript of The Great Gatsby, the Trimalchio galleys, This Side of Paradise, and the scrapbooks are available.

Use Restrictions

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.