When Zelda Sayre married F. Scott Fitzgerald, the couple instantly became New York celebrities. They were young, glamorous – and very much in love. But in private, their marriage was falling apart. Scott was an alcoholic, and had numerous affairs.
The strain on Zelda was tremendous. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Zelda spent time at a residential clinic. There, alone, over the course of six weeks, she wrote her first and only novel: Save Me The Waltz.
When he found out Zelda was muscling in on what he considered to be his territory, her husband was furious. Even more so when he discovered that his wife’s novel was based largely on their private lives…the same private lives he was using as material in his novel, Tender is the Night, which he’d been working on for years. Hellooo, double standards…