Damned to Dream

The woman who set F. Scott Fitzgerald's heart on fire and inspired one of the greatest American novels.

The victors belong to the spoils.

—Anthony Patch

“Automat” by Edward Hopper (1927).

Editor’s Note: I’m running a sale on subscriptions until New Year’s Day. If you’ve been thinking about going paid, now is the best time. Thanks so much for your support.

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Did you know F. Scott Fitzgerald was inspired to write “The Great Gatsby” by a story sent to him from the woman destined to be his star-crossed lover and obsession until the day he died? Her name was Ginevra King. She set Fitzgerald’s heart aflame.

King inspired many of Fitzgerald’s characters, including Isabelle in “Babes in the Woods,” Judy Jones in “Winter Dreams,” Josephine Perry in the Josephine stories, and, above all, Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby.”

The two started a romance when she was 16 and he was 18. They met while King was visiting a friend in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she became the writer’s first love. Their attraction was mutual and strong. Her face was, to borrow lines from The Cult, indelibly painted on his heart, carved upon his soul, and etched upon his memory. And he sketched it in ink on page after page.

At the height of their brief romance, they poured out their hearts to each other in letters, writing as many as 24 pages in a day. King would skip Bible class to correspond with Fitzgerald. Rarely did they have a chance to be alone together; she attended Westover, he Princeton. Their frustration gave rise to an exchange that sowed the seeds of familiar literary fruits. On Feb. 15, 1915, responding to Fitzgerald, she wrote: “Someday – Scott – some day. Perhaps in a year – two – three – We’ll have that perfect hour! I want it – and so we’ll have it!”

In an essay for the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Merrell Noden noted that King’s words echoed the conclusion of “The Great Gatsby”: “ . . . tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning —”