About the Book:

No one better embodies the ideal of extravagant parties, decadence, fizzing champagne bubbles and roaring youth than Fitzgerald’s legendary hero, Jay Gatsby.

In 1922, the young author of twenty-six sent a note to his publisher, writing ‘I want to write something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." Fitzgerald had just married his wife Zelda and had recently published two well-received novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. However, he set himself a new challenge, to produce a “consciously artistic achievement” and “purely creative work”.

This first version invites the reader to immerse themselves in 303 numbered pages covered with Fitzgerald’s easily decipherable rounded and fluid handwriting. The title is written on the first page in red. There are also annotations which mark the author’s way around his text as he made connections and cut passages during the writing process.

About the Author:

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and educated at Princeton. Stationed in Alabama, he met and later married Zelda Sayre. His first novel, This Side of Paradise published in 1920, was a tremendous critical and commercial success. Fitzgerald followed with The Beautiful and the Damned in 1922, The Great Gatsby in 1925 and Tender is the Night in 1934. He was working on The Last Tycoon (1941) when he died, in Hollywood, in 1940.

About the Publisher:

SP Books – standing for Éditions des Saints Pères – was founded in Saint-Germain-des-Prés by young publishers Jessica Nelson & Nicolas Tretiakow with the aim of creating a unique collection of great manuscripts. SP Books was born from our passion for outstanding stories, beautiful books, and above all, the original manuscripts of great works. As our lives grow increasingly digital, SP Books are committed to creating a reading experience that is at once revelatory, intimate and aesthetic: to restore the magic of handwriting to great works, that can be revisited and kept forever.

Details:

25.5 x 35.5 cm, 328 pages 
Black, in slipcase 
Limited numbered edition, 1,800

For more information, email books@heywoodhill.com.