Autograph letter signed (`F. Scott Fitzgerald`) to Lucy Norval - photo 1
Autograph letter signed (`F. Scott Fitzgerald`) to Lucy Norval - photo 2

Autograph letter signed (`F. Scott Fitzgerald`) to Lucy Norval

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£ 6 048
Auction dateClassic
28.09.2023 13:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1016445
Lot 55 | Autograph letter signed ('F. Scott Fitzgerald') to Lucy Norval
Autograph letter signed ('F. Scott Fitzgerald') to Lucy Norval

F. Scott Fitzgerald

FITZGERALD, F. Scott (1896-1940)



Autograph letter signed ('F. Scott Fitzgerald') to Lucy Norval, 626 Goodrich Ave, St Paul, Minnesota, 15 February 1922.



One page, 281 x 218mm. Envelope. Provenance: collection of Dr Albert Michel Fitzgerald; Sotheby's New York, 11 June 2013, lot 168.



Prevented from meeting a literary connection by 'a list of domestic circumstances'. Fitzgerald had been alerted by fellow writer Joseph Hergesheimer that the recipient was in town. 'I delayed writing you because we have been having a double misfortune here with a desperately sick baby and my wife's mother in such condition that only the baby kept us from starting immediately south'. He had nevertheless hoped to be able to meet Norval during her stay in St Paul, 'but though the baby is better, the other matter is not and unless there is a decided change my wife expects to leave for the south tomorrow night'. Fitzgerald apologies for burdening Norval 'with a list of domestic circumstances', but 'I wanted to explain my apparent discourtesy in not writing immediately ... I hope that some time you will be in the Twin Cities when we are under more fortunate auspices'.



The letter is written only three weeks before the publication of Fitzgerald's autobiographical second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned. The Fitzgeralds' only child, Frances Scott (known as 'Scottie') was under four months old at this point. Zelda's mother, Minnie Machen, was to outlive both her daughter and her son-in-law, dying in 1958. The envelope is redirected to a c/o address in New York City, indicating that Lucy Norval had already left St Paul's by the time of Fitzgerald's apologetic letter.

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