A boy of only five years old had such a strong imagination that he could describe his pony so vividly that his grandmother truly believed he had one, only he actually didn’t. He told convincing stories of yachts he dreamed he had, fooling quite a few people. When he entered St. Paul Academy, he was too ambitious and too aggressive (Greenfeld 8-9, 11). He irritated others by continually analyzing them, by his ability to see …showed first 75 words of 2927 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2927 total…believed he had failed at writing, this cannot be anything but wrong. Today we know better, but Fitzgerald did not live to enjoy our knowledge. As Vincent Benèt wrote in 1941, “You can take off your hats, now, gentleman, and I think perhaps you had better. This is not a legend, this is a reputation—and seen in perspective, it may well be one of the most secure reputations of our time” (qtd. in Mizener 338).