Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald
Zelda had a deep desire to develop a talent that was entirely her own, perhaps a reaction to Scott Fitzgerald’s fame and success as a writer. At age 27, she became obsessed with ballet, which she had studied as a girl. She had been praised for her dancing skills as a child, and although the opinions of their friends vary as to her skill, it appears that she did have a fair degree of talent. But Scott was totally dismissive of his wife’s desire to become a professional dancer, considering it a waste of time.
In April 1930, Zelda was admitted to a sanatorium in France where, after months of observation and treatment and a consultation with one of Europe’s leading psychiatrists, she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Initially admitted to a hospital outside Paris, she was later moved to a clinic in Montreux, Switzerland. The clinic primarily treated gastrointestinal ailments, and as a result of her profound psychological problems, she was moved to a psychiatric facility in Prangins on the shores of Lake Geneva. She was released in September 1931, and the Fitzgeralds returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where her father, Judge Sayre, was dying. Amid her family’s bereavement, Scott announced that he was leaving for Hollywood. Her father died while Scott was gone, and her health again deteriorated. By February 1932, she had returned to living in a psychiatric clinic.
In 1932, while being treated at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Zelda had a swell of creativity. Over the course of her first six weeks at the clinic, she wrote an entire novel and sent it to Scott’s publisher, Maxwell Perkins.
In its time, however, the book was not well received by critics. To Zelda’s dismay it sold only 1,392 copies, for which she earned $120.73.
From the mid-1930s, Zelda spent the rest of her life in various stages of mental distress. Some of the paintings that she had drawn over the previous years, in and out of sanatoriums, were exhibited in 1934. As with the tepid reception of her book, Zelda was disappointed by the response to her art. The New Yorker described them merely as “Paintings by the almost mythical Zelda Fitzgerald; with whatever emotional overtones or associations may remain from the so-called Jazz Age”. No actual description of the paintings was provided. She became in turns violent and reclusive.
In 1936, Scott placed her in the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, writing ruefully to friends:
Zelda now claims to be in direct contact with Christ, William the Conqueror, Mary Stuart, Apollo and all the stock paraphernalia of insane-asylum jokes. … For what she has really suffered, there is never a sober night that I do not pay a stark tribute of an hour to in the darkness. In an odd way, perhaps incredible to you, she was always my child (it was not reciprocal as it often is in marriages) … I was her great reality, often the only liaison agent who could make the world tangible to her.
Without Zelda’s knowledge, he began a serious affair with the movie columnist Sheilah Graham. Despite the excitement of the affair, Scott was bitter and burned out. When their daughter Scottie was thrown out of her boarding school in 1938, he blamed Zelda. Though Scottie was subsequently accepted to Vassar College, his resentment of Zelda was stronger than ever before. Of Scott’s mindset, Milford wrote, “The vehemence of his rancor toward Zelda was clear. It was she who had ruined him; she who had made him exhaust his talents … He had been cheated of his dream by Zelda”.
In March 1940, four years after admittance, Zelda was released. She was nearing forty now, her friends were long gone, and the Fitzgeralds no longer had much money. Scott was increasingly bitter at his own failures and his old friend Hemingway’s continued success. They wrote each other frequently until in December 1940, he collapsed. On December 21, 1940, he died. Zelda was unable to attend his funeral in Rockville, Maryland.
By August 1943 she returned to the Highland Hospital. She worked on her novel while checking in and out of the hospital. She never really got better and never finished the novel. On the night of March 10, 1948, a fire broke out in the hospital kitchen. Zelda was locked into a room, awaiting electroshock therapy. The fire moved through the dumbwaiter shaft, spreading onto every floor. The fire escapes were wooden, and caught fire as well. Nine women, including Zelda, died.
