by Ryan Marshall
Fitzgerald is buried in the
cemetery of St. Mary’s Church on Veirs Mill Road, along with his wife Zelda,
daughter “Scottie” and other relatives.
The festival is not a typical
literary conference geared toward academics, said Eleanor Heginbotham, one of
the festival’s organizers. The panels and discussions are geared to be friendly
toward the public, she said.
Fitzgerald has continued to
capture people’s imagination partly because he and Zelda lived a very glamorous
life, said Jackson Bryer, a professor emeritus of English at the University of
Maryland and president of the organization that sponsors the festival.
The tumultuous marriage has
become part of popular culture “for all the wrong reasons as well as the right
reasons,” he said.
The enduring appeal of
Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and other works have also driven people’s
fascination.
People fall in love with the
story and characters in “Gatsby,” as well as the poetry and style of the
writing, Bryer said.
The novel often divides
students along the lines of those who think Gatsby is a fool and others who see
him as a yearning idealist, he said.
“It kind of separates the
business majors from the English majors,” Bryer said.
The event will actually begin
Thursday, with a literary luncheon at the Mansion at Strathmore in Bethesda.
Friday will feature readings
and discussion on “Writing the War Experience” with writers Ron Capps, Katey
Schultz and James T. Matthews at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda.
Saturday will include a full
schedule of events, discussions and workshops, including a master’s class by
writer James Salter and a discussion with panelists sharing their favorite
passages in Fitzgerald’s work, including journalist Jim Lehrer and author Alice
McDermott.
Salter will also receive the
2014 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, which since 1996 has been given to writers
including William Styron, Joyce Carol Oates, E.L. Doctorow, Norman Mailer, John
Updike and Elmore Leonard.
Heginbotham is a professor
emerita at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn., the city where Fitzgerald
was born in 1896.
When she moved back to
Maryland, she got involved in the festival to help celebrate one of her
favorite authors.
Fitzgerald had deep roots in
Maryland, and did a lot of writing in the state, Heginbotham said.
His father Edward Fitzgerald
was from a prominent family in the county, and young Scott often visited the
family’s farm, Locust Grove.
The festival is about bringing
people together who love Fitzgerald, said Roberta Mandrekas of Montgomery
College.
Any time you read Fitzgerald,
something is bound to resonate with you, Mandrekas said.
When Fitzgerald died in 1940,
sales of his books were infinitesimally small, Bryer said.
But his legend was still big
enough that between 20 and 30 papers wrote obituaries or editorials, although
most celebrated him simply as a bard of the Jazz Age, an “exemplar of a time
gone by,” Bryer said.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that
critics began to regard Fitzgerald as more than just a naturally talented
dilettante, and “The Great Gatsby” became recognized as a classic of American
literature, Bryer said.
Fitzgerald’s reputation also
suffered during his lifetime through comparisons to his contemporary, rival and
sometime-friend Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway was larger than life,
and his books sold much better, Bryer said.
As result, Fitzgerald envied
Hemingway’s commercial success and Hemingway thought Fitzgerald was the
superior stylist.
In its 18th year, the festival
honoring Fitzgerald’s legacy continues because even today Heginbotham believes
people have a tangible connection to the author.
“In our culture, in our ethos,
we breathe him,” she said.