Lot 6143: FITZGERALD, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. 1896-1940.

FITZGERALD EXPLAINS HIS DAUGHTER'S "DISORDERED SITUATION."
Autograph Letter Signed ("F. Scott Fitzgerald"), 3 pp recto and verso, 8vo (conjoining leaves), Asheville, NC, n.d. [but c.1935], to Miss White on Grove Park Inn stationery, light creasing and toning, otherwise fine.

In 1935-1936 Fitzgerald stayed at Asheville, NC's Grove Park Inn while his wife Zelda sought treatment at a local sanatorium. In this letter, he writes Miss White, his 15 year-old daughter's chaperon, giving instructions for his daughter's schedule, but also offering an explanation for her recent behavior. In part: "I know how kind you have been to Scotty and I am grateful for your patience in helping out the disordered situation in which she is in, perforce. Some of the hardness in her which you may find unsympathetic comes from this never knowing where her home is, being, in effect, what we call a 'hotel child.' Except for her white persian in the country I don't think she has been able to fix her affections solidly on anything for four years. All the rest has been flux and make-the-best-of-it. The best of it has been the childish dazzle of being popular! I've made the usual masculine mistake of either bullying her or spoiling her."
See illustration.