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An Apprehension of Splendor

An Apprehension of Splendor

A Biography in Photographs of F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Family

by Shawn Sudia-Skehan

Contributions by Eleanor Lanahan and Jackson R. Bryer

Published by: The University of Alabama Press

Imprint: The University of Alabama Press

352 Pages, 203.00 × 254.00 mm, 344

Hardcover
9780817321796
Published: May 2025

£40.00

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A unique collection of Fitzgerald family photographs, many never before published, hand selected by a curator of the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum

Enter the Jazz Age glamour of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and their daughter, Scottie. An Apprehension of Splendor is a rich pictorial biography that illuminates the lives of this brilliant literary family in 344 rare photographs, 180 of which have never been published.

The Fitzgeralds are chiefly known from a small number of iconic, posed images, but the dashing couple and their daughter amassed hundreds of candid snapshots now housed in archives and university library collections throughout North America. These rare photos reveal the full, vivid lives behind the icons—a Buffalo boy cradling a velvety puppy, a jaunty southern gamine in the shade of a loblolly pine laughing at a secret, the stoic gloom of an enlistee in a scratchy woolen uniform, a plot taking shape in the mind of a fledgling writer with bed-tousled hair, an amorous young couple struggling to light a cigarette in the chiaroscuro of a Riviera beach, an unhappy baby tugged through the snow in a laundry basket lashed to a sled, and a myriad of other images that will rekindle fascination with the Fitzgeralds and their time.

With unparalleled access to the family’s personal papers and photographs, Shawn Sudia-Skehan, former director of acquisitions at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, handpicked and annotated this collection of images that brings readers closer to the Fitzgeralds than any other work. Readers of Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, and many other works by F. Scott and Zelda will recognize some of the places and experiences that inspired their unforgettable fictions.

A captivating portrait of Jazz Age celebrity, young passion, and artistic ambition, An Apprehension of Splendor returns the perfume to the luminous flower of the Fitzgeralds.

"With An Apprehension of Splendor, Shawn Sudia-Skehan offers Fitzgerald fans our most intimate look into the lives of Scott and Zelda in fifty years. Not since Matthew J. Bruccoli, Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, and Joan P. Keer compiled the sumptuous coffee-table compendium of scrapbook photos and clippings The Romantic Egoists in 1974 have we seen the couple in such revealingly unguarded moments. Thanks to Sudia-Skehan’s dogged research throughout dozens of archives and private collections, many of the photographs in this pictorial biography have never been seen before. Framed by the author’s concise and knowing captions, the images attest to the deep love and sense of family shared by two great artists and their talented daughter."—Kirk Curnutt, executive director, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society

"The Fitzgeralds, Scott and Zelda and their daughter Scottie, left behind an extensive photographic record of their lives. Many of the images are familiar, but a great many others have never been published. In An Apprehension of Splendor, Shawn Sudia-Skehan has given us a wonderful book of new material, with helpful commentary and explanation. All Fitzgerald fans and all students of the Jazz Age should own this volume."—James L. W. West III General Editor, Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition

"A picture’s worth a thousand words, but when they’re ones we’ve read about but never seen or previously unpublished images, it’s even better. . . [An Apprehension of Splendor] presents these rare photographs in chronological order and captures moments in time, revealing the humanity of this iconic couple whether on the tennis court, in front of a train station or at a beach, and provides a valuable contribution to Fitzgeraldiana."—Kendall Taylor is a cultural historian and author of Sometimes Madness is Wisdom: Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald;a Marriage and The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic.