October 2023 Auction Ends Thursday, October 26th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/26/2023
Exceptional and rare autograph letter signed by F. Scott Fitzgerald, undated by sometime from 1927-29 when Fitzgerald and Zelda lived at Ellerslie in Edgemoor, Delaware, with this letter written on its stationery. Fitzgerald writes to Gilbert Seldes, Editor of ''The Dial'', the influential literary magazine of the day. In this witty letter, Fitzgerald invites Seldes and his wife Amanda to a weekend party. Letter reads in full,
''Dilanda: / (short for 'Dear Gilbert & Amanda') / The 25th of this month is a wk. end upon which we will positively take no excuses. My spearsman is foaming at the leash or straining at the pod, and since he is a Bantu and has worked for Conan Doyle, the deaths he inflicts are excruciatingly painful. Inferior toilet tissue can often abraid [sic] the skin and be the source of a cause of real danger.
So, Old Cravat, (one week in the R.F.C. 1918) (They never recover) just make up your mind to it. The guests will be assorted and very few - but a delightful atmosphere of homliness [sic] yet luxury and that je ne sais quoi that has so often been used to describe our parties will hover over everything. Tell Amanda to do wear that lovely, fluffy stomach pump with the beige retches, or is it ruches (Charlotte will be there and you should see Charlotte's Ruches). Write me a letter yielding with womanly sweetness and as she melted into his arms and her mouth filled with tweed combings the last thing she saw was the sinister figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald''.
Written by Fitzgerald in fountain pen, single page letter measures 8.5'' x 11''. Small split at horizontal fold, else near fine condition.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Autograph Letter Signed -- ''...as she melted into his arms and her mouth filled with tweed combings the last thing she saw was the sinister figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald...''
Click above for larger image.