The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love

by James L.W. West III and James L.W. I West II

Book Overview

Incorporating information from recently discovered letters and Ginevra King's diary, this biography tells the story of the romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his first love, Ginevra King. Photos... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400063086
• ISBN13: 9781400063086
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Key to the Elusive Miss King

I fell in love with Gatsby when I was 14. Since then, I've tried to read every available Fitzgerald biography, especially works from the late Fitzgerald chronicler Matthew Bruccoli. When The Perfect Hour was published, I read it immediately. As other reviewers have indicated, this book opens the door to a romance that, due to social imperatives of the time, was destined to be temporary. Although bright, handsome and Princeton-educated, young Fitzgerald was not remotely in the social class to be considered marriageable to the very wealthy Miss King. The material in the book confirms that Ginevra King was very much part of a composite of the unattainable woman exemplified by Daisy Buchanan (Gatsby), Judy Jones (Winter Dreams)and Paula Legendre (The Rich Boy). James West does an admirable job in researching the very limited amount of information available, both in writing and from those who knew both Fitzgerald and King. He enlightens us with information about Ginevra's friends, especially the golfer Edith Cummings, who was to serve as a model for Gatsby's Jordan Baker. I live in the Chicago area, am fortunate to have trod where Ginevra once did: The beautiful old Episcopal church where she married Billy Mitchell, her first husband; the clubs her family frequented; and the old-money environs of Lake Forest. The best surprise of this book had nothing to do with its content: My mother-in-law recognized the cover photo, and said, "Oh, is it about that nice Mrs. Pirie?" Ginevra had divorced Billy Mitchell and married a scion of the Carson Pirie Scott department store family. Of course I was immediately all over my mother-in-law with questions about the legendary lady who, as it turned out, was a founding member of an exclusive women's club to which my relative belonged. My mother-in-law knew Mrs. Pirie only in her older age, but described her as charming, elegant, witty and very sure of herself. So sure, she would wear the same dark green wool, velvet-trimmed suit to her club's annual meeting - year after year, while other club members strived to outdo each other in the latest fashions. It appeared Mrs. Pirie had no interest in discussing her fabulous youth. Her friends did not mention Fitzgerald in her presence. That chapter of her life was very much ended, and she was content to enjoy her long life. One wishes she had shared more memoirs of her youth. Ladies of her kind did not do that, and she was very much a lady.

Focusing on Fitzgerald BZ - Before Zelda!

This very slight little book explores the here-to-fore little known facts regarding Fitzgerald's early infatuation with the upper class Chicago deb Ginerva King. The Kings were a very wealthy family from Lake Forest and their daughter on the surface quite out of Fitzgerald's league. As Fitzgerald wrote about all this in 1916, "Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls." Ginerva was athletic and very personable - and attractive - in 1918 simultaneously announcing her engagement while appearing on the cover of Town and Country magazine. Yet before this a romance of some sort with the poor Fitzgerald ensued, and the author compiles a remarkable amount of information about this youthful relationship, mostly from unknown letters and diaries saved and put away by Ginerva, and donated in 2003 by her granddaughter to the Fitzgerlad archives at Princeton. These are full of interesting things, and for any Fitzgerald scholar or even just an ardent fan are a must. As one reads through the book the ghosts of early Fitzgerald heroines float in and out of our consciousness. Reminders of this moment in a particualr story, or how someone spoke or felt about a moment in one story or novel can suddenly quite vividly hit us. And it is not only the earlier material. The Perfect Hour serves to remind us all, again, that Daisy and Zelda are not interchangeable - Daisy is much more of a composite character, and many of her traits, from the voice that sounded like money, as Gatsby put it, to her best friend, the tennis champ, are taken from Ginerva's life. Moreover, Ginerva's stockbroker father who owned a string of polo ponies is yet another source for the composite that is Tom Buchanan. And that rather subtly incestous concept reminds us that Fitzgerald's next novel after Gatsby was initially planned to be about a boy who killed his mother. There is much more going on in Fitzgerald than is generally thought.

The Perfect Love? Not Quite.

It's a small book but a very important book For FSF Scholars & Lovers of the writings & biographies of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I believe most of us can relate to that, 'that first love'...'that perfect love' & 'that lost love'. Many readers for the first time will realise that all of Fitzgeralds Heroines were not based on Zelda alone. Zelda was Scott's True Love but many of his most important heroines were based on Ginevra. e.g. 'Daisy'... 'she loves me she loves me not' in 'Gatsby. Theofanicus Cosmicos August 29 2005

The author is an expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald

This book illustrates one facet of F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing, which is based on his sensitivity to his family's financial situation, which was not quite what the top social strata in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Chicago, Illinois, New York City, or at Princeton University considered enviable. In August 1916, the summer after Fitzgerald left Princeton, he saw Ginevra King in Lake Forest, Illinois and someone there told him, "Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls." (p. 61, 62). The subtitle describes Ginevra as his first love, but they rarely saw each other, and the major literary contribution to this book by Ginevra is a story on pages 51-56 in which they can finally get together for a perfect hour after she has already married a Russian count and he remarks, "My wife ought to be home directly!"-- (p. 56). Among the parallels to THE GREAT GATSBY pointed out in this book, I was most impressed that "Fairway Flapper" Edith Cummings, who won the U.S. Women's Amateur tennis title in 1923, was a friend of Ginevra with an identical pinky ring and obviously the original for character Jordan Baker in THE GREAT GATSBY. Fitzgerald wrote a tremendous number of letters to Ginevra, but we don't have them. Before he destroyed the letters Ginevra sent him, he had a typed transcript made, 227 double-spaced pages, and kept it in a ring binder. After his death, the transcript was returned to Ginevra King Pirie after she had married John T. Pirie, Jr., who would become chairman of the department store, Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Surprisingly few original sources are actually quoted in this book, THE PERFECT HOUR, by James L. W. West III. They knew each other about a year before Ginevra wrote to Scott on January 31, 1916, "Honestly and truly, it would be wonderful to have that perfect hour, sometime, someday and somewhere." (pp. xiii, 50). Ginevra's diary entry for Monday, January 4, 1915, when they met. (p. 21, 22). Place cards from a party, preserved by Scott in his scrapbook. (p. 23). Her diary entries for January 5, 14 and 15. (p. 25). Draft of a telegram written by Scott on a train with a shaky hand. (p. 26). Diary entries for January 23, 28, and February 6 and 12, and letter she wrote him on February 7. (p. 26). Her first letter, written on January 11, and letter of October 13. (p. 27). Her letter of January 11 and 25. (p. 28, 29-30). By January 29 she wrote, "I want you to apologize for calling me a vampire. (p. 31). Letter of January 20 and telegram of February 6. (p. 31). Letters of January 25 and February 8. (p. 33). Letters of January 29 and April 4. (p. 34). Letter of February 8 and diary on February 20. (pp. 35-36). Letter of March 10. (pp. 36-37). Letters of February 25 and March 12. (p. 37). Letters of March 12 and 25 and diary for March 16. (p. 38). Letters of March 25 and 26 and April 26. (p. 39). Diary for June 8 (pp. 40-41) and letter of August 25 stating, "I told you, didn't I, that I figured ou

A Good Book to Start

I have to admit that I really don't know that much about the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. But I had read such good things about this book that I wanted to read it. That being said, I think this would be a good book for anyone who doesn't know alot about this man. It gives some interesting information about his first romance. Plus, it is a short book and easy to read. Also, the historical background on the way life was back then was very interesting.