"To write it took three months; to conceive it--three minutes; to
collect the data in it--all my life." So said F. Scott Fitzgerald
regarding This Side of Paradise, the novel he began writing in
November 1917 and published on March 26, 1920. This Side of Paradise
launched Fitzgerald as the "Prophet of the Jazz Age" and the spokesman
for his generation. It is still one of the major reasons for his fame
today. The story of how Fitzgerald wrote and published the book is
fascinating. In The Making of "This Side of Paradise", James West
studies the inception, composition, publication, and textual history of
the novel. He traces its growth from its earliest version, entitled "The
Romantic Egotist," to its final published form. Based on preserved
documentary evidence--fragments of "The Romantic Egotist," the
manuscript of This Side of Paradise, surviving correspondence, and
other papers--this volume blends the techniques of biographical,
critical, and textual scholarship to tell the story of the making of the
quintessential novel of the twenties.