Save Me The Waltz (Vintage Classics)

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Mizener, Arthur (1951), The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin– via Internet Archive

I glad[ly] submit to anything you want about the book or anything else…However, I would like you to thoroughly understand that my revision will be made on an aesthetic basis: that the other material which I will select is nevertheless legitimate stuff that has cost me a pretty emotional penny to amass and which I intend to use when I can get the tranquility of spirit necessary to write the story of myself versus myself.”

Daniel, Anne Margaret (August 25, 2021), "The Odd Couple: John Keats and F. Scott Fitzgerald", The Spectator, London, United Kingdom , retrieved December 27, 2021 Turnbull, Andrew (1962) [1954], Scott Fitzgerald, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, LCCN 62-9315– via Internet Archive Bruccoli, Matthew J. (July 2002) [1981], Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (2nd rev.ed.), Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 978-1-57003-455-8 , retrieved January 1, 2023– via Internet Archive

Alabama comes of age in the Deep South, in a house with an affectionate mother, Millie, and a distant father, Judge Austin Beggs, along with two older sisters Joan and Dixie. Amidst the tensions in her house, Alabama grows up a rebellious teenage daughter, albeit still the favorite. Despite disapproval, Alabama marries the charismatic David Knight, an aspiring artist based on F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of the most emotionally powerful moments in the novel is when they first meet and Knight carves into the door “David, David, David, Knight, Knight, Knight, and Miss Alabama Nobody.” They move to New York, and between their extravagant social gatherings and David’s painting, Alabama gives birth to their only daughter, Bonnie. It was my mother’s misfortune to have been born with the ability to write, to dance, and to paint, and then never to have acquired the discipline to make her talent work for, rather than against, her.” Zelda did start another novel, Caesar’s Things, and worked on it intermittently for the rest of her life. It never came to anything. She also turned to scriptwriting and attempted to produce a play called Scandalabra, described as a fantasy farce in a prologue and three acts. On June 14, 1932, Zelda signed the contract with Scribner's to publish the book. It was published on October 7 with a printing of 3,010 copies—not unusually low for a first novel in the middle of the Great Depression—on cheap paper, with a cover of green linen. [31] According to Zelda, the book derived its title from a Victor record catalog, [32] and the title evokes the romantic glitter of the lifestyle which F. Scott Fitzgerald and herself experienced during the riotous Jazz Age of American history. A shooting star, an ectoplasmic arrow, sped through the nebulous hypothesis like a wanton hummingbird. From Venus to Mars to Neptune it trailed the ghost of comprehension, illuminating far horizons over the pale battlefields of reality."Over the next few months, Zelda revised the novel, this time with some input from Scott — although how much he influenced the revisions is unclear, as the original drafts have been lost. His own opinion of the novel varied dramatically, sometimes feeling that it was “perhaps a very good novel” and other times claiming that it was “a bad book.” Here we have a woman whose talents and energy and intellect should have made her a brilliant success, who was determined to be an accomplished artist, writer, and ballet dancer in an era where married women were supposed to be wives and mothers, period.” Scott, on the other hand, didn’t appreciate Zelda doing the same thing. While his side of the correspondence has been lost, he must have sent Zelda a curt reply to her explanatory letter, because, in her next letter to him, Zelda wrote:

In the autumn of 1929, she was offered a salaried position with the San Carlo Opera Ballet Company in Naples, dancing a solo role initially in Aida with more solos to follow during the season, but had to decline the offer as she was not mentally capable of fulfilling the demanding contract. Save Me the Waltz was finally published in 1932 in a print run of likely no more than 3,000 copies. Only around 1,200 sold, and the novel went out of print after this first run. This time she was sent to a hospital in Switzerland, where the doctors recommended psychological treatment. After seeing a highly sought-after psychiatrist, Dr. Oscar Forel, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.By Spring of 1932, Zelda Fitzgerald had been a recurrent patient of several psychiatric institutions. After an episode of hysteria, Zelda insisted that she be readmitted to a mental hospital. [2] Over her husband's objections, [2] Zelda was admitted to the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on February 12, 1932. [2] Her treatment was overseen by Dr. Adolf Meyer, an expert on schizophrenia. [20] As part of her recovery routine, she spent at least two hours a day writing a novel. [3]

Purposely I didn’t — knowing that you were working on your own and honestly feeling that I had no right to interrupt you to ask for a serious opinion. Also, I know that Max will not want it and I prefer to do the corrections after having his opinion … Alabama grows further apart from her husband and their daughter. Determined to be famous, an aging Alabama aspires to become a renowned prima ballerina and devotes herself relentlessly to this ambition. She is offered an opportunity to dance featured parts with a prestigious company in Naples—and she takes it, and goes to live in the city alone. Alabama dances her solo debut in the opera Faust. However, a blister soon becomes infected from the glue in the box of her pointe shoe, leading to blood poisoning, and Alabama can never dance again. Though outwardly successful, Alabama and David are miserable.

Milford, Nancy (1970), Zelda: A Biography, New York: Harper & Row, LCCN 66-20742– via Internet Archive