Zelda's Life and Work

“She quietly expected great things to happen to her, and no doubt that’s one of the reasons why they did.” 

― Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Fitzgerald was known best as F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife but that is not all that she was. She was a writer, artist, dancer, and a mother. She wrote her only novel, Save Me the Waltz, while in a mental hospital. The novel was heavily edited by F. Scott, who was upset that Zelda used moments from her life that he wanted to use in his own novel.

Zelda was the epitome of the flapper girl.  Her cut, bobbed hair, shorter skirts, and (oftentimes) excessive drinking made her a well-known woman in the New York City social circles. Zelda liked attention and is said to have danced fully clothed in fountains.

Despite Zelda's fiery disposition and love of the limelight, her marriage to F. Scott was tumultuous and she suffered with mental illness. Many people attribute Zelda's mental illness to her trying to maintain the carefree, flapper girl image. 

Save Me the Waltz is based upon Zelda's life and marriage to F. Scott. According to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of the book, "Zelda Fitzgerald’s book emerges as much more than a document of spite.  It is a forceful, truthful picture of legendary marriage in a fabulous age: one of the most shattering self-portraits of a woman ever committed to paper."