ABSTRACT
One of Fitzgerald’s most interesting essays was published posthumously by the eminent New York writer, Edmund Wilson (see Textbox 8.3). Called “My Lost City,” Fitzgerald’s essay documented “the restlessness of New York” in the 1920s when “the parties were bigger . . . the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper.” Consequently, Fitzgerald was shocked by the contrast between the city before and during the Great Depression. The “days of carnival” were over. Misery revealed that “the crowning error of the city, its Pandora’s box” was its “vaunting pride.” Finally forced to admit “that New York was a city after all and not a universe, the whole shining edifice that he had reared in his imagination came crashing to the ground.” For Fitzgerald, New York had been transformed from an “incalculable city” to a “lost city.” His “splendid mirage” had evaporated.3
