Lot 43: FITZGERALD, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. 1896-1940.

INVITING INA CLAIRE TO DINNER, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF MORE.
Autograph Letter Signed ("F. Scott Fitzgerald"), 1 p, 8vo, Wilmington, DE, n.d., to actress Ina Claire, on Du Pont Biltmore letterhead, some offset from ink, stain to upper right corner, mild toning.

Scholars have long known that Fitzgerald was fascinated with actress Ina Claire from the moment as a teenager he first saw her on the stage. What has not been revealed before now is that Claire attended one of the Fitzgeralds' notorious parties at the Ellerslie estate in Delaware, where the Fitzgeralds resided from 1927 to 1929. From the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in Wilmington, Fitzgerald sends this note to the actress: "Fabulously beautiful Creature / Faultlessly groomed I shall be on hand a little after five and in one of my fleet of swift Rolls-Royces whisk you in 3 ½ minutes to our palace of delights upon the limpid Delaware. A thousand Cercassian girls and eunuchs will perform a march while we dine (at 6) upon bats wings and Chateau Yquem 1909."
See illustration.