The Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition: Some Final Observations

Abstract

Abstract:The Cambridge Fitzgerald Edition has been finished. The final volume, a variorum edition of The Great Gatsby, appeared in April 2019. This article recapitulates the history of the series, mentions the evidence on which the texts were based, and reviews some of the problems encountered along the way. These include Fitzgerald's frequent misspellings, his collaborations with Zelda Fitzgerald, and occasional factual errors in his texts. The writings from the middle of Fitzgerald's career, including The Great Gatsby, are beginning to enter the public domain. New editions of his novels and stories will appear. Editors of these editions are encouraged to make use of the texts and annotations in The Cambridge Edition. That is one of the ground rules of scholarly editing: later editors should make use of the work of those editors who preceded them. The Cambridge series is available to all, not only in clothbound editions but in paperbacks and e-books. The next collected edition of the author's works will likely be wholly digital, but for now we have Fitzgerald in printed form, complete in eighteen volumes.