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John Scalzi
@scalzi.com

Also worth noting that The Great Gatsby was only a modest success when it was published, it only became the cultural behemoth it is today during WWII, when the novel was licensed for a "books for soldiers" scheme via the US government. F. Scott Fitzgerald was long gone by that time.

NullHedge BongFella@nullhedge.bsky.social

Yeah, the list of 1920s bestsellers is wild. Yes, there is The Great Gatsby....and dozens of books I had never ever heard of.

36 reposts391 likes

Bill Savage
@rogersparkman.bsky.social

Armed Services edition started it, and veterans going to college on the GI Bill of Rights, which fueled massive expansion of US university systems, continued it. The New Critics/Formalists loved the book’s brevity and patterns ripe for “hidden meaning” close textual analysis. A perfect canon storm.

John Scalzi
@scalzi.com

Fitzgerald did okay whilst alive, I assure you. But yes, there is irony in his greatest success happening after he was dead.

Billy Charlebois
@billycharlebois.bsky.social

100 percent. I’m more referring to works by fantastic authors who don’t have the acclaim outside of their time or regions. Being Canadian Michael Ondaatjes “In The Skin of a Lion” or Robertson Davies “Fifth Business” are two that come to mind for me.

Dennis de la Résistance
@dennis-moser.bsky.social

Thank you for mentioning Davies… discovered his work back in the 70s, while visiting Toronto…and trying to to persuade the Texans when I got back that there was art & lit in The Great White North…now I’m in Montréal & surrounded by it 🙂

Dale
@dalewjm1987.bsky.social

And Tolkien started writing The Lord's of the Rings at 45. Gives me hope I can create something worthwhile even half way through my 3 score and 10, and like Gatsby it could become important even to just one person after I'm gone.