Was F. Scott Fitzgerald the Author of Of Time and the River?
Our favorite Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald story comes from an article updated June 1, 2013 in the Huffington Post (link here). It appears in advance of the book by R. Clifton Spargo, Beautiful Fools, The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald (2013). The event described in the article may have taken place at the end of October 1936. It was later told by Miss Helen Frances Northup (1901–1996) a long-time librarian at the University of Wisconsin. In 1936 she was a librarian at the University of Tennessee attending the Southeastern Librarian Association conference in Asheville, slated to begin on Wednesday October 28th at the Grove Park Inn.
On October 5, 1936 Thomas Wolfe wrote a letter to his brother Fred stating, “There is a poor, desperate, unhappy man staying at the Grove Park Inn. He is a man of great talent but he is throwing it away on drink and worry over his misfortunes. (Max) Perkins thought if Mama went to see him and talked to him, it might do some good…” At the Grove Park Inn, Miss Helen Northup was presenting her paper “What the Reference Librarian Expects from a Card Catalog.” What she got at the conference was more that she could have ever found in a card catalog drawer. It was the story of a lifetime, about an encounter with author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda had entered Asheville’s Highland Hospital in April of 1936, and Scott had returned to the Grove Park Inn to stay from July to December of that year.
As written by Spargo, Helen Northup claims she was sitting at a table in the Grove Park Inn with other librarians “…when they found themselves addressed by a man who introduced himself as the author of a famous Ernest Hemingway novel. Studying him skeptically, they kept their doubts to themselves, but he could discern their suspicions. You don’t believe me, do you? he retorted, I’m Scott Fitzgerald. I wrote Of Time and the River.”
Spargo continues “Northup assured the man standing above her that he must be lying — either he wasn’t Scott Fitzgerald, or he hadn’t written Of Time and the River. At this point the man became indignant, while the woman beside him tugged at his elbow begging him to leave the librarians alone: Come on, Scott! Come on, Scott! In no mood to have his credentials as a writer doubted, the would-be author vowed to prove he was none other than the legendary Scott Fitzgerald. Come with me! he insisted, as the by now bewildered librarians followed him across the hotel lobby, most likely uncertain whether they were dealing with a madman or a drunk. Marching up to the hotel registration desk, the possibly famous author shouted at the clerk on duty in no uncertain words, Tell this young lady who I am! Without missing a beat — we’ll never know if the clerk was in on the gag or merely indulging a famous guest — the clerk replied, This is Mr. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote Of Time and the River.”
The author wonders whether the event was a practical joke, and adds, “a joke likely bolstered by alcohol, and spurred by Scott’s sad sense of his slowly descending literary star (he was by the 1930s often tagged a forgotten man in America letters) and his persistent desire for vindication. But even in combination — drink, adversity, and mischief — the incident is a reminder of the redemptive power of humor.” The Wolfes did not visit Fitzgerald in 1936. The following year, in May 1937 Fred, Mabel, Julia and Tom drove down to Tryon, N.C. and visited Fitzgerald at the Oak Hall Hotel. It is not likely that Of Time and the River was a topic of conversation. But that is another story.
