Likely due to an assist from the Internet age, it’s been a good year for discovering lost works from famous authors. First, there was the news of forthcoming stories and poems from Truman Capote—due out soon in the US—and just a few weeks ago, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird prequel/sequel came out. (Can we “discover” some unpublished Salinger work next, guys?)
The questionable ethics of those two releases aside, you can at least take solace in knowing that the latest high-profile posthumous release—a short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald—was submitted to journals and publications by the author himself, meaning that he, at least, was OK with the public inevitably reading it, had it been picked up (it was not).
After being labeled a “lost” story for the last half-century, Andrew F. Gulli, editor of the re-booted, quarterly version of the famed Strand magazine, stumbled on the manuscript while looking through an archive at Princeton, and secured it for his publication. Titled “Temperature,” the 8,000-word story takes place in Los Angeles, and follows a 31-year-old writer as he struggles to balance work, life, and love. No surprises there.
Of note, however, is the timing of the story, as it was written in 1940, amongst the author’s last attempts to re-stoke relevance in the public view, particularly in relation to his position adjacent to the film industry. (Like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Fitzgerald had signed a screenwriting contract with a studio, which in his case didn’t really work out). Less than a year-and-a-half after writing “Temperature,” Fitzgerald was dead.
To read the story, you can order a copy of The Strand magazine here.
(via Slate)
