Description:

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Encino, CA, December 26, 1939
F. Scott Fitzgerald TLS Requesting Reduced Rent On Apt. Where He Wrote "The Last Tycoon" Less Than 1 Year Before His Death
TLS with AN

A 1p typed letter signed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) as "Scott Fitzgerald" at center right, and pen-inscribed by him with an autograph note below his signature as: "Very Best to Eddie if you're / with him." Written at Fitzgerald's rented apartment at 5521 Amestoy Avenue, Encino, California. December 26, 1939. Typed and hand-written on watermarked paper. Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds and a few extra wrinkles, else near fine. 8.5" x 11."

In this letter dated less than one year before Fitzgerald's death, the struggling novelist writes his landlady, Isabella S. Horton, to inquire if her offer to temporarily reduce his monthly rent was still available. The tone of Fitzgerald's letter, while humble, is optimistic: he reports that his health has improved, his prospects of Hollywood studio screenwriting look promising, and that his personal assistant, Frances Kroll (later Ring), is ensuring that he get on a sound financial footing.

Fitzgerald wrote in part:

"Things look a little brighter. My health is better and I really think I am going to work at the studios within a week. All this illness has, however, put me in debt and it may be some months before I am really straightened out.

In our conversation several weeks ago you mentioned the possibility of temporarily reducing the rent to $150. I believe that at this rental I could carry on here. Is the offer still open? I hate to ask it in this winter season when the valley is at its most attractive, but Miss Kroll and I have figured that in order to get straight with the world we will have to cut down on everything…"

Fitzgerald, who was once feted as one of the most promising voices of his generation, wrote this letter in debt, while presenting his reduced rent a week late. His correspondent "Mrs. Horton" referred to Isabella S. Horton (1859-1961), the mother of Hollywood comedic character actor Edward Everett Horton (1886-1970), here called "Eddie." Edward Everett Horton had purchased a 4-acre estate in Encino, California, in the San Fernando Valley, in 1925. He constructed a rambling, multi-property residence there called "Belleigh Acres" (pronounced "Belly" Acres.) Fitzgerald lived at Belleigh Acres in its guest house, and it was here that Fitzgerald worked on his fifth and final novel, "The Last Tycoon." The novel based on the tragically short life and brilliant career of MGM production head Irving Thalberg was unfinished, but would be posthumously published.

Economic necessity had forced Fitzgerald to return to Hollywood in the late 1930s. He paid the entirety of his wife Zelda's psychiatric care, as well as his daughter's college tuition. He struggled to write the kind of short stories and books which had made him famous during the Jazz Age, and was crippled by alcoholism. Fitzgerald worked as a screenwriter at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1937-1939, until he was fired. He then tried his hand as a freelance screenwriter. On the idea of Fitzgerald writing screenplays, Billy Wilder wrote that it was like asking "a great sculptor … to do a plumbing job." Fitzgerald found it challenging to adopt his writing to another medium.

Frances Kroll (later Ring) (1916-2015) served as Fitzgerald's personal assistant and secretary during the last 20 months of Fitzgerald's life. She described her old boss in a memoir called "Against The Current: As I Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald" (1985). Fitzgerald died of a heart attack at age 44 on December 21, 1940 - less than one year after he wrote this hopeful letter.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: TLS with AN

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