June 2013 Auction Ends Thursday, June 27th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/27/2013
Rare F. Scott Fitzgerald typed letter signed, devoted entirely to Fitzgerald's revealing the people who impacted his writing. Dated 7 January 1934, in the final years of his life, letter to a Mr. Egbert S. Oliver at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon reads in part, ''Dear Mr. Oliver, The first help I ever had in writing in my life was from my father who read an utterly imitative Sherlock Holmes story of mine and pretended to like it. But after that I received the most invaluable aid from Mr. C.N.B. Wheeler then headmaster of the St. Paul Academy now the St. Paul Country Day School in St. Paul, Minnesota. 2. From Mr. Hume, then co-headmaster of the Newman School and now headmaster of the Canterbury School. 3. From Courtland Van Winkle in freshman year at Princeton - now professor of literature at Yale (he gave us the book of Job to read and I don't think any of our preceptorial group ever quite recovered from it.) After that comes a lapse. Most of the professors seemed to me old and uninspired, or perhaps it was just that I was getting under way in my own field. I think this answers your question. This is also my permission to make full use of it with or without my name. Sorry I am unable from circumstances of time and pressure to go into it further. Sincerely, [signed] F. Scott Fitzgerald''. Fitzgerald added a few hand corrections in ink throughout the letter. 2pp. letter on 2 sheets of plain stationery, measuring 8.5'' x 11'' are quite attractively matted and framed alongside a photo of Fitzgerald to an overall size of 32'' x 17.5''. Light toning, creasing and paperclip imprint to letter, else near fine.
Incredible F. Scott Fitzgerald Typed Letter Signed on His Top 3 Influences as a Writer -- ''...my father...read an utterly imitative Sherlock Holmes story of mine and pretended to like it...''
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