Once Again to Zelda

Categories: Staff Picks , Nonfiction

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite authors, and The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books.  The book itself is dedicated to his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, in honor of their often tumultuous love.  I was intrigued to read the story behind this dedication in the book Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature’s Most Intriguing Dedications by Marlene Wagman-Geller.

Arranged chronologically, she reveals the fascinating, tragic, and often romantic stories behind the dedications in fifty classic books, including a few that I’ve read and enjoyed:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)

Dedicated to

Anna Grigorevna Dostoevsky

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)

TO

J.R.M.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Dedication

For Mr. Lee and Alice

in consideration of Love & Affection

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1965)

FOR Jack Dunphy AND Harper Lee

WITH MY LOVE AND GRATITUDE

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)

To my mother

And the memory of her mother

You asked me once

what I would remember.

This, and much more.