Photo courtesy of Mollie Smith Waters.
Mollie Smith Waters.
Literature lovers can step straight into the Jazz Age without leaving Homewood on Wednesday, July 8.
From 1-2 p.m. in the Round Auditorium at the Homewood Public Library, 1721 Oxmoor Road, writer and educator Mollie Smith Waters will explore “Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Alabama Connections,” tracing how a Montgomery belle and her husband left their imprint on American literature.
The event is free.
Waters, an instructor of American and Southern literature at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Greenville, has spent years teaching Fitzgerald’s work and was a longtime volunteer at The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery.
That mix of scholarship and hands-on experience has given her a close-up view of the couple behind the legend, including writing about mental health issues decades before doing so became mainstream.
Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, 1921.
“Fitzgerald was the face of his generation,” Waters said. “He and Zelda were famous for being famous. They were the Kardashians of their time. But when you look at his literature, it’s how he speaks to that younger generation — insecurity, vulnerability, trying to make it in the world. Those are universal truths.”
Alabama, she said, is woven more deeply into that story than many readers realize. Zelda’s diaries and journals often found their way, almost word for word, into her husband’s fiction.
“Sometimes he would lift whole passages from her journals and put them in his books and short stories and give them to characters,” Waters said. “There’s a lot more southern influence there than people sometimes realize.”
Waters will also touch on Zelda’s own writing, including her novel “Save Me the Waltz,” and the way the couple’s turbulent rise, fall and partial redemption mirror the arc of 20th-century American letters.
One of her favorite discoveries from the museum is Fitzgerald’s meticulous financial ledger, a record that undercuts the popular image of a purely frivolous pair.
“People think they were just throwing money away,” she said. “But that ledger tells a different story — how much he spent trying to keep everyone afloat.”
For Waters, the Fitzgeralds still have plenty to teach today’s writers.
“Early success does not always equate [with] permanent success,” Waters said. “There’s also a second chance in the way his work came back from obscurity.”
The program is part of Tales from the Writing Life, a series that invites audiences to meet authors and dive into the art of storytelling. It is supported by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance.
“We are featuring local authors to come and describe their creative process and the books they have written,” said Leslie West, head of adult services for the Homewood Public Library. “By taking a look at his Alabama connections and their influences on Fitzgerald, one will better comprehend the great man’s writings.”
Register for free at homewood.libnet.info.
- What: Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Alabama Connections
- Where: Homewood Public Library Round Auditorium
- When: Wednesday, July 8, 1 p.m.
- Cost: Free
