For his keen social insight, glib sophistication, and breathtaking lyricism, F. Scott Fitzgerald stands as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. His biographers all note the importance of his boyhood in St. Paul, where, as he put it, he lived in "a house below the average on a street above the average." Fitzgerald's sensitivity about wealth and position--later made evident in such classics as The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night--was bred of his St. Paul family and associations. This collection brings together the best of Fitzgerald's St. Paul stories--some virtually unknown, others classics of short fiction. Patricia Hampl's incisive introduction traces the trajectory of Fitzgerald's blazing celebrity and its connections to his life in the city that gave him his best material. Headnotes by Dave Page provide specific ties between the stories and Fitzgerald's life in St. Paul.

Patricia Hampl is Regents' Professor of English at the University of Minnesota and author of several books, including A Romantic Education and I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. She has won NEA, Bush, Guggenheim, Bellagio, McKnight, Fulbright, and MacArthur fellowships. Dave Page is co-author of F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: Toward the Summit and was the co-chair of the 2002 International Fitzgerald Conference. He teaches writing at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota.