I suppose that of all the stories I have ever written this one cost me the least travail and perhaps gave me the most amusement. As to the labor involved, it was written during one day in the city of New Orleans, with the express purpose of buying a platinum and diamond wrist watch which cost six hundred dollars. I began it at seven in the morning and finished it at two o'clock the same night. Scott Fitzgerald
The Camel’s Back was originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1920 and was was first published in book form in Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922.
The Jazz Age, a name coined by Scott Fitzgerald, began in 1918 with the end of World War I and lasted until 1928, ending with the Stock Market Crash of October 1929. This period was marked by economic prosperity, cultural flowering, liberal behavior, social mobility, bootleg liquor, a shaking up of social mores, and most notably Jazz Music.
Scott Fitzgerald ascribed the loosening of American sexual mores to teenagers’ acquisition of automobiles during the First World War. However, one major motivating factor contributing to the genesis of the Jazz Age was the prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition drove America’s drinking population into speakeasies, underground night clubs where people could enjoy their booze and the newly popular Jazz music. Because these clubs were underground, they were also open to new forms of expression and Jazz music was popularized in these bars.
Scott Fitzgerald was the poet laureate of the Jazz Age. He expertly portrayed the social issues that characterized that time including; new versus old wealth, social class and changing morals, in a collection of short stories that were published in the Metropolitan Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, Smart Set, Collier’s, Chicago Sunday Tribune and Vanity Fair.
This volume is part of a series commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of the Jazz Age. Each volume features a Scott Fitzgerald short story masterpiece, a unique cover art and an introduction by Erin Pater, a book publicist.
