The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

These short stories offer insights into many themes, characters, and techniques that emerged in Fitzgerald's later works. In the title story of this collection by one of America’s greatest writers, a baby born in 1860 begins life as an old man and proceeds to age backward. F. Scott Fizgerald hinted at this kind of inversion when he called his era “a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” Perhaps nowhere in American fiction has this “Lost Generation” been more vividly preserved than in Fitzgerald’s short fiction. Spanning the early twentieth-century American landscape, this original collection captures, with Fitzgerald’s signature blend of enchantment and disillusionment, America during the Jazz Age.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and went to Princeton University, which he left in 1917 to join the army. He is said to have epitomized the Jazz Age, which he himself defined as “a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre; their traumatic marriage and her subsequent breakdowns became the leading influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work); six volumes of short stories; and The Crack-Up, a selection of autobiographical pieces.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896–1940) was an iconic American novelist and short-story writer who came to define the Jazz Age—a term he coined himself. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, where he neglected his studies in favor of literary pursuits. He ultimately dropped out in 1917 to join the U.S. Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met and fell fiercely in love with Zelda Sayre, a wealthy Southern belle who would become his wife, enduring muse, and occasional rival.

His debut novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), was an overnight sensation that captured the youthful rebellion and shifting morals of the post-war generation. The book's massive success afforded him and Zelda a lavish, chaotic lifestyle split between New York, Paris, and the French Riviera. During this vibrant expatriate period in the 1920s, he formed a complex friendship with fellow author Ernest Hemingway and composed what is widely considered his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (1925). Though it received mixed reviews and modest sales during his lifetime, the novel later became a cornerstone of classic American literature, renowned for its brilliant critique of the American Dream and its lyrical, melancholic prose.

Despite his early success, Fitzgerald’s later life was marred by financial struggles, severe alcoholism, and Zelda’s deteriorating mental health, which eventually required her long-term institutionalization. He channeled these darker, deeply personal themes into his ambitious but commercially disappointing 1934 novel, Tender Is the Night. In his final years, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter to pay off his mounting debts. He died of a heart attack at age 44, believing himself a forgotten failure. Today, however, he is celebrated globally as a master of the American novel, immortalized by his peerless ability to capture the glittering, tragic essence of his era.