Tales of the Jazz Age

<p>Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) is a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Divided into three separate parts according to subject matter it includes one of his better-known short stories The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. All of the stories had been published earlier independently in either Metropolitan Magazine The Saturday Evening Post Smart Set Collier's the Chicago Sunday Tribune or Vanity Fair.</p><p> </p><p>The Jelly-Bean</p><p>The Jelly-Bean is a story set in the southern United States in the city of Tarleton Georgia. Fitzgerald wrote that he had a profound affection for Tarleton but somehow whenever I write a story about it I receive letters from all over the South denouncing me in no uncertain terms. Written shortly after his first novel was published the author also collaborated with his wife on certain scenes.</p><p> </p><p>The story momentarily follows the life of a jelly-bean or idler named Jim Powell. An invitation to a dance with the old crowd revives his dreams of social advancement and love until the consequences of drink and power of money come through and ruin them.</p><p> </p><p>The Camel's Back</p><p>In the short introduction to this short story Fitzgerald wrote I suppose that of all the stories I have ever written this one cost me the least travail and perhaps gave me the most amusement. The story he confessed was written with the express purpose of buying a platinum and diamond wrist watch which cost six hundred dollars and took seven hours to finish. Though it was the least-liked story by Fitzgerald in the volume it was included in the O. Henry Memorial Collection (of the O. Henry Award) of 1920.</p><p> </p><p>Fitzgerald claimed the story was based on actual incident that occurred in St. Paul Minnesota in 1919. Three friends called up during the evening to tell me I had missed some rare doings Fitzgerald later recalled a well-known man-about-town had disguised himself as a camel and with a taxi-driver as the rear half managed to attend the wrong party. Aghast with myself for not being there I spent the next day trying to collect the fragments of the story.</p><p> </p><p>May Day</p><p>Published as a novelette in The Smart Set in July 1920 May Day relates a series of events which took place in the spring of the previous year during the general hysteria which inaugurated the Jazz Age.</p><p> </p><p>Porcelain and Pink</p><p>A play published in The Smart Set in January 1920.</p>