the history of the great gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby over the span of the summer and fall of 1924 in France . He then revised it during the winter, concluding his edits in early 1925. The novel's publication date is noted as April 10, 1925.
Original Reception of The Great Gatsby
During F. Scott Fitzgerald's life, The Great Gatsby only underwent two printings. The first printing included about 20,000 copies, and the second: 3,000. The book would not gain popularity until the 1950's and has only gained more since then. However, when the book was originally published, it did not captivate critics or readers like it does today. H.L. Mencken, a critic for The Chicago Tribune, referred to the novel as "unimportant" and "a glorified anecdote". Harvey Eagleton of The Dallas Morning News stated, "When This Side of Paradise was published, Mr. Fitzegerald was hailed a young man of promise... But the promise, like so many, seems likely to go unfulfilled." Although some critics considered the book a success, with Edwin Clark of The New York Times calling it "a curious, mystical, glamorous story of today," its negative reviews outshined the positive having a profound impact on the failed early sales of the novel. So the question remains: why was The Great Gatsby unsuccessful in its early years? One of the possible answers to this aside from the critics' reviews is the readers reading about the 1920s as they were living through them. This time was not glamorous to them and was simply their reality. What they were reading about could be seen in their everyday life. The novel presents the 1920s as a sort of ironical time, but when the book came out, potential readers did not strive to see the irony or the truth behind the novel. Unfortunately F. Scott Fitzgerald was never able to see the great success that was coming for The Great Gatsby, but readers and educators alike are now able to appreicate the novel and become infatuated with a time they were not present for.