04/11/2006 May Day - Research (Part 5)
For the life of me I do not know where Tuesday has gone. Someone has taken this day away from me. It is already eight in the evening and I have done close to nothing all day. I have been putting off this trip to the library for two days now but tomorrow I’ll force myself into the research dudgeon. I’ll chain myself to the bookshelves until I find what I need.
For Tomorrow –
1. Maps of New York City, preferably those ranging in date from 1910-1920. I would like to outline the character’s specific journeys through the city with material from the time period if at all possible. Specifically, I’ll need maps that illustrate Forty-second Street to Central Park. The biggest problem will be bringing those images back with me or putting them onto the computer. I’ll take whatever as long as it works.
2. Next will be a list of local businesses. Hopefully, this won’t be too terribly difficult but I have some nagging doubts because I don’t believe phone-books were created yet. I’ll need information on Delmonico’s, the exact address of the Biltmore, information regarding a restaurant by the name of Childs’, information on a clothing store named Rivers’ Brothers, a communist newspaper by the name of the New York Trumpet, an eating establishment named Devineries’, and anything about a Tolliver Hall on tenth Street.
3. Old pictures from any of the businesses or the surrounding area from the early nineteenth century would be nice too.
4. Were there any elevated trains in New York City on Sixth Avenue? If so, a picture would be nice.
5. I need to find out where the boats with soldiers returning from World War One ported and what those ships were named. More specifically, those ships that returned to New York City in February and April 28th, 1919.
6. A Newspaper from May 2nd, 1919 or May 3rd, 1919.
I think that should do it but there is still a ton of information that needs to be sifted through, which is heartbreaking considering all the research I’ve already done. The only problems I’ve run into so far are the song that Fitzgerald quotes,
“if a saxophone and me are left alone why then two is com-pan-ee” (page 87)
any information regarding Welsh Margotson Collars (page 72) and the clothing line Covington (page 72). I’ve got some people from the Fitzgerald society looking into the song lyrics but as far as the clothes go I think I’ll have to do that on my own. Hopefully tomorrow will be a great success. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.
The biggest problem I have had with “May Day” to date, has to be the criticism attributed to it. It has always been regarded as this great story, Fitzgerald’s brief, beautiful affair with realism. However, it seems the critics would want you to believe that there is a lot more being paid to the story than there actually is. I’ve already done a good deal of research on this part of “May Day”, its reception, and most of it is lip service. One piece in particular sticks out in my mind. Its this essay trying to compare “May Day” to a meat market. What I believe the essayist is trying to say is that the party at Delmonico’s is nothing more than a “market” where young women are put on display like meat for the men to dine on. I mean that would be a great point if every other Fitzgerald piece illustrated the same damn thing. For instance, take the “Camel’s Back”. Fitzgerald, more or less lampoons the whole debutante, ball room thing. The girl falls for a man dressed as a camel. There are plenty of other examples but alas I am to lazy to list them. As you can already see I have a wealth of information to go through and don’t feel like disproving an essay that I know needs no disproving if you are at all familiar with Fitzgerald’s works. I just don’t believe anyone has asked themselves why this story is considered so great and I tend to do just that.
Here is a small musing on “May Day” from last night,
Realism is exactly what it sounds like; artists trying to describe their subject matter as close to life as possible. “May Day” puts Fitzgerald’s brief affair with realism in a league of its own. The story has this ultra-realistic vibe to it. I can go where his characters have gone, know where the characters are but what I see is radically different from Fitzgerald’s writing. He could describe a piece of paper in a way that would make you cringe every time someone threw a piece away. Fitzgerald just adds layer upon layer until that piece of paper becomes something out of an art museum. “May Day” is this hybrid of a story; half fairy tale, half realist fiction.
Now with the research,
There are some parallels between the life of Fitzgerald and the events of “May Day”. As Fitzgerald puts it,
“This somewhat unpleasant tale, published as a novelette in the "Smart Set" in July, 1920, relates a series of events which took place in the spring of the previous year. Each of the three events made a great impression upon me. In life they were unrelated, except by the general hysteria of that spring which inaugurated the Age of Jazz, but in my story I have tried, unsuccessfully I fear, to weave them into a pattern---a pattern which would give the effect of those months in New York as they appeared to at least one member of what was then the younger generation” (Page VIII).
The parallels between Fitzgerald and Sterrett cannot be ignored. Both were failing as artists, recently discharged from the Army, and having lady problems. In the Spring of 1919 Fitzgerald was living in New York City working for an advertisement agency. He hated the job. Like Sterrett, Fitzgerald too was done with the army by February 1919. Lastly, Fitzgerald was trying to convince Zelda to marry him although he was unsuccessful. Now one may thing that Sterrett is Fitzgerald but they would be wrong. We can see pieces of Fitzgerald in Key, Dean, and Peter too. I think the connection between Key and Fitzgerald may be limited; however the two do share some passing connection with Francis Scott Key.
“The taller of the two was named Carrol Key, a name hinting that in his veins, however thinly diluted by generations of degeneration, ran blood of some potentiality. But one could stare endlessly at the long, chinless face, the dull, watery eyes, and high cheek-bones, without finding a suggestion of either ancestral worth or native resourcefulness” (page 74).
It should also be noted that the two characters that die in the novella are those most closely related to Fitzgerald. I’ve read too that these months in New York were some of the hardest that Fitzgerald but instead of quoting something else will ask you to trust me. I do have a degree. Chapter Ten seems to be a retelling of a crazy night Fitzgerald had with a friend kicking bottles down the street (Bruccoli, 113). It’s almost as if each character was a different part of Fitzgerald’s personality but I don’t really think that is where I want to go with this paper. I’m sticking more to description and reader interaction than any biographical context. I do, however think it would be nice to mention in passing about the connections between Fitzgerald and the characters. I just don’t want to get to deep into it.
Fitzgerald never really mentions “May Day” in the Crack Up. He too, never appreciated this story. It kind of makes me think that I am fighting an uphill battle. In a letter to Edmund Wilson he mentions it in passing, saying that he had sold three or four stories (page 254). There is also a mention of the Mat Day riots occurring in New York City (page 15) but as far as I know Fitzgerald is the only one that remembers them because the Internet doesn’t. This is where an old copy of the New York Times would come in handy.
Lastly, In His Own Time doesn’t really cover the story either. Out of the two hundred and some odd pages of reviews, essays, and interviews it is mentioned twice. Not surprisingly, most of the essays in this collection focus on The Great Gatsby and the reviews tend to focus on his novels. Actually that previous statement is false. Ignore it. “May Day” gets props (if you will) in two pieces, both from Minnesota’s twin cities. The review from St. Paul mentions “May Day” as just part of Tales of the Jazz Age. The reviewer didn’t seem to love it or hate it. He probably didn’t even read it (page 341). The second mention is from the Minneapolis Journal in an essay entitled “The Future of Fitzgerald”. The essayist says that “May Day” is “a tragic story of the bitter sort” (page 414). He too, never gives his opinion. I really think that the only reason the story was mentioned at all was because these articles wanted to cram as much shit into them as possible to kind of gloat that this guy is from our town.
“Look what the guy from the twin cities can do.”
“You don’t have shit on us Wisconsin.”
Yup, that is defiantly what they were thinking because it was all about showing how much Wisconsin sucked ass back in those days.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. and Bryer, Jackson. F. Scott Fitzgerald In His Own Times: A Miscellany. Kent University Press. 1971
Bruccoli, Matthew. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. ©1981
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Crack Up. New Directions Publishing: New York, New York, 1945.
For Tomorrow –
1. Maps of New York City, preferably those ranging in date from 1910-1920. I would like to outline the character’s specific journeys through the city with material from the time period if at all possible. Specifically, I’ll need maps that illustrate Forty-second Street to Central Park. The biggest problem will be bringing those images back with me or putting them onto the computer. I’ll take whatever as long as it works.
2. Next will be a list of local businesses. Hopefully, this won’t be too terribly difficult but I have some nagging doubts because I don’t believe phone-books were created yet. I’ll need information on Delmonico’s, the exact address of the Biltmore, information regarding a restaurant by the name of Childs’, information on a clothing store named Rivers’ Brothers, a communist newspaper by the name of the New York Trumpet, an eating establishment named Devineries’, and anything about a Tolliver Hall on tenth Street.
3. Old pictures from any of the businesses or the surrounding area from the early nineteenth century would be nice too.
4. Were there any elevated trains in New York City on Sixth Avenue? If so, a picture would be nice.
5. I need to find out where the boats with soldiers returning from World War One ported and what those ships were named. More specifically, those ships that returned to New York City in February and April 28th, 1919.
6. A Newspaper from May 2nd, 1919 or May 3rd, 1919.
I think that should do it but there is still a ton of information that needs to be sifted through, which is heartbreaking considering all the research I’ve already done. The only problems I’ve run into so far are the song that Fitzgerald quotes,
“if a saxophone and me are left alone why then two is com-pan-ee” (page 87)
any information regarding Welsh Margotson Collars (page 72) and the clothing line Covington (page 72). I’ve got some people from the Fitzgerald society looking into the song lyrics but as far as the clothes go I think I’ll have to do that on my own. Hopefully tomorrow will be a great success. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.
The biggest problem I have had with “May Day” to date, has to be the criticism attributed to it. It has always been regarded as this great story, Fitzgerald’s brief, beautiful affair with realism. However, it seems the critics would want you to believe that there is a lot more being paid to the story than there actually is. I’ve already done a good deal of research on this part of “May Day”, its reception, and most of it is lip service. One piece in particular sticks out in my mind. Its this essay trying to compare “May Day” to a meat market. What I believe the essayist is trying to say is that the party at Delmonico’s is nothing more than a “market” where young women are put on display like meat for the men to dine on. I mean that would be a great point if every other Fitzgerald piece illustrated the same damn thing. For instance, take the “Camel’s Back”. Fitzgerald, more or less lampoons the whole debutante, ball room thing. The girl falls for a man dressed as a camel. There are plenty of other examples but alas I am to lazy to list them. As you can already see I have a wealth of information to go through and don’t feel like disproving an essay that I know needs no disproving if you are at all familiar with Fitzgerald’s works. I just don’t believe anyone has asked themselves why this story is considered so great and I tend to do just that.
Here is a small musing on “May Day” from last night,
Realism is exactly what it sounds like; artists trying to describe their subject matter as close to life as possible. “May Day” puts Fitzgerald’s brief affair with realism in a league of its own. The story has this ultra-realistic vibe to it. I can go where his characters have gone, know where the characters are but what I see is radically different from Fitzgerald’s writing. He could describe a piece of paper in a way that would make you cringe every time someone threw a piece away. Fitzgerald just adds layer upon layer until that piece of paper becomes something out of an art museum. “May Day” is this hybrid of a story; half fairy tale, half realist fiction.
Now with the research,
There are some parallels between the life of Fitzgerald and the events of “May Day”. As Fitzgerald puts it,
“This somewhat unpleasant tale, published as a novelette in the "Smart Set" in July, 1920, relates a series of events which took place in the spring of the previous year. Each of the three events made a great impression upon me. In life they were unrelated, except by the general hysteria of that spring which inaugurated the Age of Jazz, but in my story I have tried, unsuccessfully I fear, to weave them into a pattern---a pattern which would give the effect of those months in New York as they appeared to at least one member of what was then the younger generation” (Page VIII).
The parallels between Fitzgerald and Sterrett cannot be ignored. Both were failing as artists, recently discharged from the Army, and having lady problems. In the Spring of 1919 Fitzgerald was living in New York City working for an advertisement agency. He hated the job. Like Sterrett, Fitzgerald too was done with the army by February 1919. Lastly, Fitzgerald was trying to convince Zelda to marry him although he was unsuccessful. Now one may thing that Sterrett is Fitzgerald but they would be wrong. We can see pieces of Fitzgerald in Key, Dean, and Peter too. I think the connection between Key and Fitzgerald may be limited; however the two do share some passing connection with Francis Scott Key.
“The taller of the two was named Carrol Key, a name hinting that in his veins, however thinly diluted by generations of degeneration, ran blood of some potentiality. But one could stare endlessly at the long, chinless face, the dull, watery eyes, and high cheek-bones, without finding a suggestion of either ancestral worth or native resourcefulness” (page 74).
It should also be noted that the two characters that die in the novella are those most closely related to Fitzgerald. I’ve read too that these months in New York were some of the hardest that Fitzgerald but instead of quoting something else will ask you to trust me. I do have a degree. Chapter Ten seems to be a retelling of a crazy night Fitzgerald had with a friend kicking bottles down the street (Bruccoli, 113). It’s almost as if each character was a different part of Fitzgerald’s personality but I don’t really think that is where I want to go with this paper. I’m sticking more to description and reader interaction than any biographical context. I do, however think it would be nice to mention in passing about the connections between Fitzgerald and the characters. I just don’t want to get to deep into it.
Fitzgerald never really mentions “May Day” in the Crack Up. He too, never appreciated this story. It kind of makes me think that I am fighting an uphill battle. In a letter to Edmund Wilson he mentions it in passing, saying that he had sold three or four stories (page 254). There is also a mention of the Mat Day riots occurring in New York City (page 15) but as far as I know Fitzgerald is the only one that remembers them because the Internet doesn’t. This is where an old copy of the New York Times would come in handy.
Lastly, In His Own Time doesn’t really cover the story either. Out of the two hundred and some odd pages of reviews, essays, and interviews it is mentioned twice. Not surprisingly, most of the essays in this collection focus on The Great Gatsby and the reviews tend to focus on his novels. Actually that previous statement is false. Ignore it. “May Day” gets props (if you will) in two pieces, both from Minnesota’s twin cities. The review from St. Paul mentions “May Day” as just part of Tales of the Jazz Age. The reviewer didn’t seem to love it or hate it. He probably didn’t even read it (page 341). The second mention is from the Minneapolis Journal in an essay entitled “The Future of Fitzgerald”. The essayist says that “May Day” is “a tragic story of the bitter sort” (page 414). He too, never gives his opinion. I really think that the only reason the story was mentioned at all was because these articles wanted to cram as much shit into them as possible to kind of gloat that this guy is from our town.
“Look what the guy from the twin cities can do.”
“You don’t have shit on us Wisconsin.”
Yup, that is defiantly what they were thinking because it was all about showing how much Wisconsin sucked ass back in those days.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. and Bryer, Jackson. F. Scott Fitzgerald In His Own Times: A Miscellany. Kent University Press. 1971
Bruccoli, Matthew. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. ©1981
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Crack Up. New Directions Publishing: New York, New York, 1945.
posted by May Day at 5:12 PM
1 Comments:
Just read may day and I found your blog though Google cause I was so intrigued by it. I think you did an awesome job with everything and I'm blown away by the connections that you are able to make out. This is just to point a little error out: in your last paragraph you spelled 'definitely' as 'defiantly' which is a quite different thing altogether.
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