The Last of the Novelists: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last Tycoon

Re-creating the author's intention from the manuscripts, this study shows that Fitzgerald regarded none of his material as final but, rather, as material toward a novel quite possibly about the Ameri­can Dream--a respectful study of the American business hero.

Mr. Bruccoli's transcription and anal­yses of the manuscripts and notes for the unfinished novel serve two related purposes: they enable us to gauge the state of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work-in-progress at the time of his death and thereby to reassess this work properly.

Examination of Fitzgerald's drafts re­veal that he regarded none of this mate­rial as finished. There are no final drafts--only latest working drafts. After Chapter One there are no chapters, and even this is marked for rewrite. And Fitzgerald's undated last outline pro­vides only topics or ideas for the thir­teen unwritten episodes.

The Last Tycoon has always been read as a Hollywood novel--a novel about the movies. It is far from certain that the title was final, but it is clear that Fitzgerald conceived Monroe Stahr as a "tycoon." Fitzgerald's tentative title "The Love of the Last Tycoon: A West­ern" is instructive: it connects Stahr with all the other poor boys who went West to seek their fortunes.

"I am the last of the novelists for a long time now," Fitzgerald wrote in a note for The Last Tycoon. His statement does not refer to technique or to form, Mr. Bruccoli claims; it can be under­stood only in terms of theme and char­acter. Stahr exemplifies Fitzgerald's be­lief in the American Dream--decency, honor, courage, responsibility, and the possibilities of the American life--and Fitzgerald regarded himself as the last of the American novelists writing on this great theme.