Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald—A Marriage

Does the world really need another biography of the fabulous Fitzgeralds? Don’t we all know by now the tales of their alcohol-fueled, devil-may-care antics? The leaps from roofs into swimming pools? The dancing in water fountains? Do we need to be reminded how Zelda’s rich connections supplied many of Scott’s stories with their plotlines and palpable personages? Reminded of the couple’s nearly Nietzschean incarceration of both Apollonian and Dionysian drives toward love, life and art within the same squat cell of holy matrimony? Do we really need that? Sure we do.

While this new book from cultural historian Dr. Kendall Taylor purports to be a biography of both F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Dr. Taylor demonstrates a particularly adept sensitivity toward Zelda’s outer and inner worlds. And when we view Scott’s life (via journal entries, letters, and personal remembrances of family and acquaintances), Taylor has almost magically managed to render it distinctly through Zelda’s eyes. This is a great bio—humorous, honest, illuminating and sad.