A lost decade: exploring F Scott Fitzgerald's contribution to the illness canon through the doctor–nurse series and other healthcare stories of the 1930s

Abstract

F Scott Fitzgerald spent the 1930s writing about illness themes while he struggled with tuberculosis, insomnia, alcoholism, heart disease and the mental illness of his wife Zelda. During this decade, Fitzgerald published six stories that prominently feature hospitals and healthcare professionals. These stories, the 'doctor-nurse stories', along with nine additional published stories that touch upon medical themes have not previously been investigated as a thematic grouping. This paper explores the 1930s stories in the context of Fitzgerald's life and career in order to highlight his significant yet previously undervalued contribution to the canon of illness literature and his work's relevance to the field of literature and medicine.

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and psychoanalysis: The construction of <em>Tender Is the Night</em> (1934)

“…Throughout the 1930s, he had a great deal of contact with doctors and nurses due to his problems with alcohol, his insomnia, the tuberculosis he suffered from, and of course, Zelda's mental disorder. During this period, he wrote several stories which dealt with the subject of medicine from different points of view (Kerr, 2012). Tender Is the Night (1934) was part of that literary production.…”

Scott Fitzgerald: famous writer, alcoholism and probable epilepsy

“…Scott Fitzgerald became an alcohol addict at a very young age, and his addiction worsened significantly when he lived in Paris 5,6,7,8 . A number of references support the concurrence of comorbidities, such as a sleep disorder, anxiety, depression, hypochondria and pulmonary tuberculosis 5,7,8 .…”

“…A number of references support the concurrence of comorbidities, such as a sleep disorder, anxiety, depression, hypochondria and pulmonary tuberculosis 5,7,8 . His biographers stated that he was known to use barbiturates and sedatives in a generous way 5,7 . In the last years of his life, while living and working in Hollywood, LA, he developed signs and symptoms of heart failure due to alcoholic cardiomyopathy and died suddenly in 1940 5 .…”

“…His most famous novels are The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned and The Last Tycoon, and his short stories include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, recently made into a famous movie 5 . Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940 at the age of 44 in Los Angeles, California, USA, from a heart attack caused by a heart condition probably brought about by complications of alcohol abuse 5,7,8 .…”

“…The group included Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce 5,6,7 . He married Zelda Sayre, whose medical history is associated with a number of psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia 5 .…”