Why, Francis?


I watched this movie because I was interested in F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I liked it. It was nothing amazing, but it made sense for a while... But there was one thing that was really confusing and I know I'm going to post this and then someone will answer it and I'll feel like an idiot, but I'll ask anyways. Francis seemed to really respect Fitzgerald through the whole movie and she promised on her mother's life that she wouldn't tell anyone about the book he was writing. When people asked her, she even refused to tell them anything about it. Although historically I knew she would have had to give the book to a publishing company for The Last Tycoon to exist today, I didn't get why she gave it away at all. I know it was good and all and she wanted the world to see it or whatever, but I just thought she respected his wishes more than that. Why would she give it away if it wasn't even finished and it was a first draft? He probably wouldn't have wanted it published in that condition. Maybe I'm just reading too much into this...yeah probably, it's late.

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The intent of the promise was that she shouldn't tell anyone about the topic of the book just until it was finished and published. Even though the book may not have been a final draft by time he died, basically it was essentially finished (since he wasn't able to do any more with it). It's common practice to publish unfinished works of well known authors after they died. As long as there is a complete story (beginning, middle, and end), sometimes it's better to publish as is then to potentially lose a possible great work for ever. Some people's first drafts are better than other people's published books.

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plus...she knew it was beautiful writing, and she couldn't bear that the world not read it. After all, when she checked his books out from the library, it was apparent that he hadn't published in a while. the librarian said that his books hadn't been checked out in ten years, and she even mentioned how he had been popular in the past...

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[deleted]

Why and how could she rob the world of Scott's genius? It would be a crime to her and to us. He only meant to the film industry, as if you didn't know he had worked in screenwriting breifly before he started writing "The Last Tycoon". You are reading way too much into this. Go to sleep.

-C

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Scott wanted it to be published. Of course, he hoped to have it completed. Who's to say how great The Last Tycoon might have been had he finished it? Fitzgerald was fading from public consciousness when he died. He believed that The Last Tycoon was the book that would restore his reputation and make him enough money to support Zelda and Scottie. I think his publishers, Scribners, felt that even some Fitzgerald was better than none. They had always believed him and stuck by him, even when he was of practically no use to them.

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