An unfinished novel believed to
be the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald has been found by the editor of a mystery
magazine who seems to have a knack for unearthing the lost works of famous
authors.
Andrew Gulli, editor of the
Strand mystery magazine, says he discovered the undated manuscript -- which
apparently had been sitting in a box in the Princeton University library for
decades -- called “Ballet School – Chicago” last year, The Washington Post
reported.
Gulli initially thought the work
was a short story, like the Fitzgerald work he published in the Strand a few
weeks ago called “Temperature.”
Regarding the “Ballet School”
work, which is about 2,500 words, Gulli told The Washington Post: “There was a
scene that could have stood solely as a short story,” he says, “but then it
went on one more paragraph, and then it just ended abruptly. And I realized,
‘Oh my God . . . it’s a novel.’”
“I really liked it,” Gulli said.
“It’s romantic. There’s a ballerina trying to make her way in Chicago. She has
an attraction to a wealthy neighbor because he can get her out of this tough
existence . . . and she can have a happy life with him. The story goes into the
very hard training for ballet dancers. But then something quirky and
unsuspected happens that changes her impression of him.”
Gulli has also found lost works
written by John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Heller and Dashiell
Hammett.