• 2020 marks the centenary of the publication of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise.
• Fitzgerald's importance as the definer of his times, whether as the chronicler of the Jazz Age or the finest writer of the American Depression, continues into the twenty-first century, and his enduring popularity across all reading constituencies remains the case almost eight decades after his death.
• This story collection provides a unique set of insights into Fitzgerald's parallel interests at particular points in his career.
• If a century on from his first publications we want to understand better Fitzgerald's first forays into fiction and the publishing world, we need to read the stories in Flappers and Philosophers.

    
'Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.'
            
F. Scott Fitzgerald's first story collection, Flappers and Philosophers, appeared in 1920 on the heels of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and immediately established him as a master of popular fiction.
             
Love stories such as 'The Offshore Pirate' and 'Head and Shoulders' capture the spectacle and fantasy of the Jazz Age, celebrating that modern icon of feminine self-possession, the flapper, while comedies of manner like 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' and 'The Ice Palace' showcase Fitzgerald's eye for humour. In addition to these four classic tales, which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post , this edition highlights the author's proficiency with other crowd-pleasing story types: from Gothic fiction ('The Cut-Glass Bowl') to didactic moral stories ('The Four Fists'), from satire ('Dalyrimple Goes Wrong') to spiritual quests ('Benediction'), Fitzgerald tried his hand at many genres—-and succeeded at all.