How do you feel about Scott selling Zelda's short stories under both their names?

How do you feel about Scott selling Zelda's short stories under both their names? Why wouldn't he let Zelda publish under her own name?

I didn't really approve of that. It started out seeming like a good way to get Zelda's work out to the public, but then Scott turned it into a way to control her and feather his own fragile ego-nest.

i think his intentions were never good. He was self centered and couldn't deal with a wife that was capable.

Criminal -- but again, I'm sure women writers found it very difficult to get their works published for all the reasons listed in the book.

I was very shocked that Scott would continue to take credit after the first time it happened. Considering that two published authors might sell more work I find it hard to believe this was justified by royalties. I think it was a control thing too. He knew it would devastate her.

Scott was a product of his time and also seemed to suffer from low self esteem. His writing was what he did and who he was. If Zelda could write too, who was he?

I don't think his self-esteem could let him admit that his wife was a good writer, also. He wanted to be the one who was known as a writer and just couldn't give her any credit. They lived in the time when the husband was the provider and I think a lot of men believed that men had a superior intellect, so he just couldn't let her have any relevance in the writer's world, which he felt "belonged" to him and other men.

Violated. At the same time I could see how at least in the beginning, that was a marketing move especially given the times they lived in. His continuing to do so however just showed his frailty and insecurities.

The logic only works for the first time - Scott acting as a conduit for her exposure. After that, he's putting the money above her feelings, and his feelings above everything. Which was apparently typical of every single decision he made.

Angry. I felt very, very angry. And more so with each occurrence, added to his other selfish acts of emotional blackmail.

I agree with Beac that the reason that Scott continued to sell Zelda's stories under both their names was due to his own ego. He was so not confident in his own work and his own abilities that being forced to recognize that Zelda had talent was just too much for him.

I can understand the first couple under both names, but then he should have explained that from now on she would write under her name only. Scott was afraid Z might do so well she might start getting a lot of attention. He could not deal with competing with her. He knew what a capable person she was and was afraid if she found out, she might leave him. It's all about ego and insecurity.

I agree with everyone who feel that Scott was motivated by selfishness and control.

Scott had to be the great writer. There wasn't room in the world in which he saw himself for Zelda to be a successful writer. His ego ruled this decision to sell Zelda's stories as his own.

Very interesting and important comments in this section! I enjoyed reading all of them. Sadly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, like many male authors throughout history, wrote with their wives but failed to credit them or downplayed their important contributions. Leo Tolstoy comes to mind immediately.

It angered me that Scott did not love his wife enough to want to see her succeed. I think it showed his own insecurities that he couldn't let his wife take the credit for her own writing. I understood that publishers did not want to risk publishing Zelda's work at first and thought they could trade on Scott's success, but for him to continue to insist his name went on her work just showed what a control freak he was.

I was interested to learn this. I didn't know of this until reading the book. All of your comments rather echo my own sentiments.

My first thought is that he didn't trust Zelda to be able to write well enough, and didn't want any failures to reflect on him in his great quest to write The Great American Novel. As we learn more about him, it's obvious he was controlling and if she was in the "spotlight" he had to be there, too.

As others have said it seemed to be all about Scott saving his self image and not allowing Zelda to have any credit for her own abilities.

That really annoyed me, he just always had to be in the limelight.

At first, I didn't feel like he was maliciously making the choice to put his name instead of hers, but then,... lateron, as the story progressed, I felt differently. I nearly felt as though the whole of the novel is written in Zelda's voice,... her thoughts, her emotional keels and descents, every inch of who she was whilst living during that time stitched itself into my heart and mind. Her voice is as real to me as though she were relaying the story by way of conversation rather than narrative. And, I haven't read another biography or even one of her short stories to have her distinctive voice imprinted to memory... its simply that Ms. Fowler paints such a strong portrait of Zelda, that it is as though she were fully real to me as she was to everyone then.

Having said that, I felt as she did, that by continuing to publish her stories under his name and not hers, it was a direct violation of trust and a menacing aftertaste! He never seemed to giver her credit for her abilities in art, dance, or writing, and I came suspect that he was envious of her natural and rare talent. She was a natural bourne writer in the sense that the words flowed through her and out of her as soon as she took up her pen. Her mind was lit alive with a creative synergy that she fueled into her pursuits of the arts.

I completely concur with beac! As well as others who have brought up his insecurities as a man and as a writer, as I think on a very elemental level, it's his insecurities that derailed everything he strove to achieve. He couldn't separate himself from his writing, and I echo what was said previously, that if Zelda had risen to success in writing, than how could he step in and out of her spotlight, when it was the very spotlight that he so dared to want the most!?