Sometimes madness is wisdom - Kendall Taylor

Irresistibly charming, recklessly brilliant, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald epitomized everything that was beautiful and damned about the Jazz Age. But behind the legend, there was a highly complex and competitive marriagea union not of opposites but almost of twins who both inspired and tormented each other, and who were ultimately destroyed by their shared fantasies. Now in this frank, stylish, superbly written new book, Kendall Taylor tells the story of the Fitzgerald marriage as it has never been told before.

Following the success of Fitzgeralds first novel, This Side of Paradise , Scott and Zelda took New York by storm. Scott was recognized as the greatest American author of the twenties and everyone was fascinated with Zelda, his ravishing young wife, known as the model for all his flapper heroines. Ultimately it all fell apart, and Kendall Taylor tells us why. Drawing on previously suppressed material, including crucial medical records, Taylor sheds fresh light on Zeldas depths and mysteriesher rich but largely unrealized artistic talents, her own ambitions that were unfulfilled because she was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, her passionate love affairs. Zeldas contribution to Scotts fiction, which was based on her diaries, her letters, and her life, was her only great achievementand for that she may have paid the terrible price of her own sanity.

In Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom , Kendall Taylor has created the definitive Fitzgerald biography. Written with sympathy, original insight, and dazzling styleand featuring memorable appearances from Edmund Wilson, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway, among othersthis is a stunning portrait of a marriage, an age, and a fabulous but tragic woman.


From the Hardcover edition.