Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was born at the dawn of the twentieth century, destined for celebrity as one half of the infamous darlings of the Jazz Age literary world.

For the first time, Zelda’s story is told from her own perspective rather than through the lens of her famous husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A southern belle from Montgomery, Alabama, Fitzgerald epitomized the New Woman of the modern era in New York and Paris, all the while living on the edge of a nervous breakdown. With a wealth of new information from the Princeton archives, author Linda Wagner-Martin vividly illustrates Zelda’s psychological landscape, from the roots of her alcoholism to her enviable artistic gifts and achievements: novels, essays, short stories, ballet and even painting.

This is a riveting and provocative portrayal of a talented woman’s professional and emotional conflicts, as relevant today as half a century ago.

Praise for Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: ‘Wagner-Martin has done more research into the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and brought greater intelligence to its interpretation than anyone else. … anyone who wants to understand how it was with Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald will learn a great deal from this book’ - Scott Donaldson, author of Hemingway vs Fitzgerald

‘Thought-provoking and illuminating’ - Dale Spender, author of Man Made Language

‘Linda Wagner-Martin changes our image of Zelda from devil-may-care flapper to Southern Belle, from lunatic to professional woman, from hysteric to talented writer. This cultural biography at long last helps us to locate Zelda within an unfolding history of American women’s social, sexual, and artistic practices.’ - Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University

Linda Wagner-Martin has won teaching awards at Michigan State University and UNC. She is currently the president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Among her fifty edited and written books are biographies of Sylvia Plath, Gertrude Stein, Ellen Glasgow, Barbara Kingsolver, and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.