Gatsby revisited … again, at the Shelter Island Public Library

Bored? Let’s take a trip back to the Roaring Twenties, that era of Prohibition when, ironically, the booze flowed more freely than ever.

Fashionable young women — flappers — wore short skirts and bobbed their hair, the music was hot and boisterous parties lasted well into the night.

It was called The Jazz Age, a term coined early in the decade by F. Scott Fitzgerald who — more than any other artist in any form — captured its reckless essence, most notably in his masterpiece, “The Great Gatsby.”

Join us – remotely, via Zoom — on Jan. 22 at the Library’s Friday Night Dialogues, for a discussion of the origins of the iconic novel, still regarded by literary critics and historians 100 years after its publication as the greatest American novel of the 20th Century. “Gatsby” is second only to “Ulysses” on the prestigious Modern Library 100 Best Novels list and is still a best-seller with worldwide sales of some 500,000 copies a year.

You’ll find yourself in Westport, Conn. not across the Sound in Long Island’s Great Neck, the long-presumed inspiration for Gatsby’s “West Egg” setting.

Author, historian and “Gatsby” scholar Richard Webb Jr. will share highlights from his book, “Boats Against the Current: The Honeymoon of Scott and Zelda,” a companion to the award-winning documentary, “Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story,” of which he was co-creator and executive producer. Together, they tell the real story behind the novel and the inspiration for one of the most captivating characters in American literature, Jay Gatsby.

For Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, 1920 was a wild summer, one of new-found wealth and fame, a summer of debauchery. They were, as Dorothy Parker said in an archival quip cited in the documentary, America’s first rock stars.

Fitzgerald’s first novel, “This Side of Paradise,” had become a widely-acclaimed critical success and instant best-seller; Scott and Zelda were just married and, after having been kicked out of some of New York’s finest hotels, they were on their honeymoon and in their first home, which they had rented, at the edge of a rich man’s 175-acre estate in Westport. Here — including at their landlord’s mansion — they skinny-dipped at the beach and partied with celebrities.      

Westport itself, then a vibrant coastal town overflowing with illicit booze, wealth and creativity, provides a compelling context to the novel. As the critic and life-long Fitzgerald friend, Edmund Wilson, wrote, Scott and Zelda “reveled in the orgies of Westport.”

“Boats Against the Current” takes us back, as the book’s last line alluded to in its title suggests, to that past. With the documentary, it advances a theory that Westport native Barbara Probst Solomon posited in a 1996 New Yorker article.

The late Ms. Solomon was raised across the way from the colossal estate of Frederick E. Lewis, an enigmatic, reclusive millionaire known for his lavish parties. Richard “Deej” Webb grew up in Westport, a short bike ride from where the Fitzgeralds lived and, from a young age, was enthralled by them; the film’s director, Robert Steven Williams, moved to Westport in 1992 and shortly thereafter, joined Mr. Webb on the remarkable literary sleuthing adventure that resulted in a collaboration that produced the award-winning documentary film and companion book.

“Gatsby in Connecticut” is available on multiple platforms, including Amazon, to purchase and rent; images from “Boats Against the Current” will be included in the program and, if time and technology allow, Mr. Webb will read from the book and answer questions.

Charles Scribner II, scion of the novel’s publisher in 1925, called Mr. Webb’s book “Quite simply the most original, entertaining and dramatic new window on the origins of Gatsby … Refreshing, engaging, enlightening and as fun as one of Gatsby’s parties … a gift, indeed a treasure. Five stars plus a green light!”

“It is rare to find anything new in Fitzgerald scholarship … This is truly fresh,” wrote James L. W. West III, general editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The program begins at 7 p.m.; attendees must register 30 minutes in advance on the library website: shelterislandpubliclibrary.org, and may contact Jocelyn Ozelins at [email protected] or 631-749-0042 for further information. The program, which is being presented in collaboration with several other East End Libraries, is free.

Next up: On Feb. 5, Laura Cerrano presents on Feng Shui, “Celebrating the Chinese New Year.” On Feb. 12, nonagenarian, Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist, Shelter Island’s Jules Feiffer will speak with Robert Lipsyte, to reflect on 2020 and the journey from the American dream of his youth to the gated community of his old age.