Page 3 - PGA Community News - October '20

October 2020 October 2020 PGA C.A.N.!, Page 3

From The Editor:

You Can’t Be A Beacon If Your Light Don’t Shine…

I rented a car last month Shortly thereafter Zelda and Scott started to live separately Zelda was also a painter and had exhibited some of her
which had a country music in different locations. works in 1934. She was disappointed by the reviews of her
station playing on the radio Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia but it is artistic expression.
when I turned on the ignition. believed she was actually bipolar. In 1936, Scott introduced After their deaths, there has been renewed interest in
Within a short period of Zelda to Dr. Robert S. Carroll, the founder of Highlands Scott and Zelda’s literary works and Zelda’s art. There have
time, Donna Fargo started to Hospital in Asheville. He treated her with several different been biographies, screenplays and Broadway productions
sing, “You can’t be a beacon methods including electric shock therapy also known as about their lives.
if your light don’t shine, electroconvulsive therapy. The patient is given anesthesia In a 2005 article in the publication, “Alabama Heritage,”
There’s a little light in all of while electric currents pass through the brain and cause by Everl Adair, entitled “The Art of Zelda Fitzgerald” the
us by God’s design….” seizures. Dr. Carroll was known to experiment with the writer recognizes that Zelda’s artwork has been reappraised
While visiting Asheville, length of time under anesthesia and the length of time of the as interesting in its own right. After spending much of the
North Carolina, I had read seizures. 1950s and ‘60s in family attics—Zelda’s mother even had
about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald and I thought of her when For twelve years Zelda checked herself in and out of much of the art burned because she disliked it—her work
I heard Donna Fargo’s lyrics. Highlands Hospital. She began writing another novel, has drawn the interest of scholars. Exhibitions of her work
Zelda was the wife of the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Caesar’s Things,” but never finished it. On March 10, 1948 it have toured the United States and Europe. Adair noted the
She was born, Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama and is reported that Zelda left Highlands and sat on some concrete influence of Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe on
reportedly a beauty, a free spirit with a vivacious personality. steps waiting for a taxi. Time passed without any sight of her paintings and concluded that her surviving corpus of art
Scott was quoted as saying, “I was in love with a dazzling the taxi. Zelda lost her patience and returned to Highlands. “represents the work of a talented, visionary woman who
light. I thought she was a goddess.” That night a fire started in the basement of an old wooden rose above tremendous odds to create a fascinating body of
Zelda and Scott married on April 3, 1920 after his novel, building in which Zelda was sleeping. The patients were work—one that inspires us to celebrate the life that might
“This Side of Paradise,” skyrocketed up the best seller locked in their rooms. The fire spread through a dumb waiter have been.”
lists. She was 19 and he was 23. For the next 10 years they and consumed the rooms on the floor where Zelda slept. Scott In 1992, Zelda was inducted into the Alabama Women’s
traveled across Europe - often partying from Midnight until had predeceased her in December, 1940. Hall of Fame.
dawn. Their life seemed to be like a fairy tale romance as Although Scott called Zelda a “dazzling light” when he Scott, consciously or unconsciously, did not allow
Scott became the highest paid short story writer in the United first met her, he did not allow Zelda’s light to shine. He was Zelda’s light to shine while she was alive but she has become
States earning as much as $3,000.00 per story. In October, furious when he read, Zelda’s novel, “Save Me The Waltz,” a beacon in the years after her death. It was a different time
1921, Zelda gave birth to their daughter, Scottie, their only because it was a semi-biographical account of their marriage. in which Scott and Zelda lived, but we can learn not to allow
child. In reality, they were deep in debt because they could The lead character, Alabama Beggs, struggles (like Zelda) another person, whether a loved one or not, to dim our light
not control their spending and slowly their relationship was with a husband that discourages her creative endeavors and – to prevent us from being a beacon to others. Remember
deteriorating. This was the “roaring twenties.” does not allow her to earn recognition independent of her what Donna Fargo tells us in her song:
Zelda began writing and dancing ballet, neither of which husband. Scott had been writing “Tender Is The Night” and “You can’t be a beacon if your light don’t shine.”
she felt was she able to master. Zelda did write short stories felt that Zelda copied his thoughts in her novel. It has been Until next month…
and sold them to publishers. Scott turned to alcohol which said that Scott called Zelda a plagiarist and a third-rate writer James A. Cioffi, Editor
resulted in his inability to write. In 1930 Zelda suffered her thereby suppressing her confidence. His behavior certainly james@jcclaw.com
first of several nervous breakdowns. While being treated contributed to Zelda’s mental health issues. In actuality, Zelda
at Johns Hopkins Hospital, she wrote and published an kept a diary and it is believed that Scott read her diary and
autobiographical novel, “Save Me The Waltz,” in 1932 but plagiarized Zelda’s thoughts and descriptions about their life
it was considered a failure in sales – only 1,392 copies sold. together. Attention:

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