Andrew Turnbull (1921–1970)

Turnbull is a good basic biography of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) and it was only the 2nd ever published in 1962 (following Arthur Mizener's The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald from 1951). Both of them and others since have been superseded by Matthew J. Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (orig. 1981, 2nd edition paperback 2002) which is considered the standard work to date and is still in print. The Mizener and Turnbull are likely hard to find in 2016. I only found a used copy of the 1971 paperback of the Turnbull completely by chance.

Turnbull has a small personal connection due to the fact that in 1932-33 Fitzgerald and his daughter Scottie stayed at a rented house on the La Paix estate of Turnbull's parents near Baltimore, Maryland where Zelda Fitzgerald was undergoing treatment for her recurring mental health issues. This adds the benefit of some warm-hearted anecdotes of the games that Fitzgerald organized for Scottie and the 3 Turnbull children. Fitzgerald also seems to have taken 11-year old Andrew under a fatherly wing taking him to football games and introducing him to boxing.

Any Fitzgerald biography will be read with great deal of sadness but it is the warm family moments like those in the company of the Turnbulls and the stories of the final possible turnaround under Sheilah Graham's care in Hollywood that still help to lift the spirit.

Stray Observations
- Andrew Turnbull was also the editor of the first collection of letters: The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald from 1963.… (més)