04/08/2006 May Day - Resarch (Part 1)
Yale Commencement 1916
One of the first questions I had when reading "May Day" was, when exactly did Sterrett and Dean graduate from Yale? According to the following quote it can be inferred that both Sterrett and Dean graduated three years before the story takes place.
“He thought, quite without amusement, that only three years before he had received a scattering vote in the senior elections at college for being the best-dressed man in his class” (page 63).
According to the Manuscripts and Archives Department at Yale the commencement date of the class of 1916 was held on June 21st. If there is any doubt to the year of the graduation Fitzgerald refers to their year of graduation again by referring to it as “the year before the war” (page 63).
Gamma Psi Fraternity
“Well, I imagine she's down for the Gamma Psi dance. Did you know we're having a Yale Gamma Psi dance to-night at Delmonico's” (page 64)?
The fraternity that is mentioned throughout “May Day”, Gamma Psi, doesn’t seem to have ever existed. I’m unclear whether this was a chapter or an actually fraternal organization. However, the Manuscripts and Archives Department of Yale sent me a paper outlining Yale’s Extracurricular Activities and Clubs from 1780-1960 (Havemeyer) and reading over it there is no mention of any Gamma Psi of any kind. From what I’ve found elsewhere there isn’t even a Gamma Psi fraternity in existence, I’m not sure if there ever was. I have found chapters of fraternities named Gamma Psi but no actually organization with the name. As far as Fitzgerald himself is concerned he was never a member of any fraternity (Bruccoli). Throughout his college career he was active in the Triangle Club, Tiger, and Lit; all of them literary clubs, however Fitzgerald did join the Cottage Eating Club (Bruccoli, 64) which served “in the absence of fraternities and secret societies” (Bruccoli, 64). The only thing I did find connecting Fitzgerald with a fraternity was an anecdote Bruccoli mentions,
“In February, Fitzgerald cooked up a locally famous hoax, with Gus Schurmeier, he attended a Psi U dance at the University of Minnesota dressed as a girl and shocked his dancing partners with a racy line (The joke supposedly ended when Fitzgerald tried to use the men’s room.)” (Bruccoli, 73).
Perhaps, this is the fraternity that Fitzgerald bases Gamma Psi off of. I doubt it though. The thing is probably just made up. I mean I was in a made up fraternity in eighth grade called Sigma Omega, so fake fraternities aren’t that difficult to imagine.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Carroll and Graf. New York. 1993.
One of the first questions I had when reading "May Day" was, when exactly did Sterrett and Dean graduate from Yale? According to the following quote it can be inferred that both Sterrett and Dean graduated three years before the story takes place.
“He thought, quite without amusement, that only three years before he had received a scattering vote in the senior elections at college for being the best-dressed man in his class” (page 63).
According to the Manuscripts and Archives Department at Yale the commencement date of the class of 1916 was held on June 21st. If there is any doubt to the year of the graduation Fitzgerald refers to their year of graduation again by referring to it as “the year before the war” (page 63).
Gamma Psi Fraternity
“Well, I imagine she's down for the Gamma Psi dance. Did you know we're having a Yale Gamma Psi dance to-night at Delmonico's” (page 64)?
The fraternity that is mentioned throughout “May Day”, Gamma Psi, doesn’t seem to have ever existed. I’m unclear whether this was a chapter or an actually fraternal organization. However, the Manuscripts and Archives Department of Yale sent me a paper outlining Yale’s Extracurricular Activities and Clubs from 1780-1960 (Havemeyer) and reading over it there is no mention of any Gamma Psi of any kind. From what I’ve found elsewhere there isn’t even a Gamma Psi fraternity in existence, I’m not sure if there ever was. I have found chapters of fraternities named Gamma Psi but no actually organization with the name. As far as Fitzgerald himself is concerned he was never a member of any fraternity (Bruccoli). Throughout his college career he was active in the Triangle Club, Tiger, and Lit; all of them literary clubs, however Fitzgerald did join the Cottage Eating Club (Bruccoli, 64) which served “in the absence of fraternities and secret societies” (Bruccoli, 64). The only thing I did find connecting Fitzgerald with a fraternity was an anecdote Bruccoli mentions,
“In February, Fitzgerald cooked up a locally famous hoax, with Gus Schurmeier, he attended a Psi U dance at the University of Minnesota dressed as a girl and shocked his dancing partners with a racy line (The joke supposedly ended when Fitzgerald tried to use the men’s room.)” (Bruccoli, 73).
Perhaps, this is the fraternity that Fitzgerald bases Gamma Psi off of. I doubt it though. The thing is probably just made up. I mean I was in a made up fraternity in eighth grade called Sigma Omega, so fake fraternities aren’t that difficult to imagine.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Carroll and Graf. New York. 1993.
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