The pre-publication history of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is
the
Night is fascinating; the post-publication history of the text is
appalling. As I have shown in The Composition of Tender is the
Night,[1] the novel had twelve
drafts of three different versions before it was serialized, and then it was
heavily revised for book publication.[2]
As issued in April 1934 the first printing included more than 100
substantive errors. No corrections were made in the two 1934 reprints, and
only two corrections were made in the 1951 reprint.[3] The Scribner Library edition of
1960, the
second Scribner's edition of the 1934 text, introduces six corrections and
thirteen errors—even though Malcolm Cowley and his revised edition
were both available for consulation.[4]
Spot-checks of the non-Scribner's editions (see Pedigree of Editions of
Tender is the Night) reveal only irregular correction; and
collation of eighty-four pages of the English first edition against the
American shows twenty-four changes—of which eleven are English
spellings, nine are corrections, and four are fresh errors.
Obviously, most of the blame for the sloppy text of Tender is
the Night belongs to Fitzgerald. Even at his best he was weak on the
mechanical details of writing, and he read proof on this novel during a
period of great personal strain. Moreover, his wholesale revising in proof
would have made the job of copy-editing Tender is the Night
difficult for even the most skilled editor. The book galleys were set directly
from the unrevised serial, and then Fitzgerald proceeded to prepare the
book by covering these galleys with revisions. Although all the book galleys
have not survived, it is demonstrable that they had to be reset.[5] As Cowley notes, Maxwell Perkins
was
not the plodding editor this novel needed. Perkins "had an aristocratic
disregard for details so long as a book was right in its feeling for life. Since
Fitzgerald was regarded as one of his special authors, the manuscript was
never copy-edited by
others."[6]
In 1951 Malcolm Cowley edited a new edition for Scribner's, "The
Author's Final Version," based on Fitzgerald's marked dummy in which the
story is re-arranged into straight chronological order.[7] Fitzgerald seems to have remained
unaware of the concentration of errors in the text, for he made only four
corrections—as opposed to revisions —in his copy. In 1936
when the
Modern Library was considering reprinting the original plates Fitzgerald
asked for permission to insert explanatory headings, but did not mention
correcting the errors.[8] However,
Cowley recognized the foul state of the text and undertook to clean it up in
his edition. This chore he performed so painstakingly that his edition
includes more than 900 variants from the first edition— but less than
thirty of these he identifies in his notes. This edition also introduces thirteen
new errors into the text.[9] Cowley
is
right in suggesting
that the errors in the first edition have the cumulative effect of distracting
the reader's attention, but he fails to recognize that his liberal position on
silent emendation has the cumulative effect of offering the reader something
less than straight Fitzgerald. Given the conditions of commercial publishing,
Cowley probably never had the option of listing all his emendations.
Nonetheless, the fact remains that an unwary critic could get into trouble
with Cowley's text.
There is more than spelling, grammar, and punctuation at stake, for
Tender is the Night includes a group of chronological
inconsistencies which seriously affect the reader's reaction to the novel.
Some difficulty is caused by the inconsistencies in the ages of the
characters; and Fitzgerald's inattention to the time-span of his story
confuses Book III, which traces Dick's crack-up and which several critics
have found unsatisfactory. It is essential that the reader be aware of the
pace of Dick's collapse, but from the first edition it is hard to tell whether
Book III occupies one or two years. We know from Fitzgerald's
preliminary plan that the novel opens with Rosemary's arrival on the
Riviera in June 1925 and ends with Dick's departure from the Riviera in
July 1929.[10] But Fitzgerald seems to
have confused four years with five summers. Thus, on page 276 he gives
the year of Dick's Rome meeting with Rosemary as 1928, but on this page
and on
page 271 he adds an extra year to their ages. If the break-up of the Divers'
marriage and Dick's abdication are to occur in the summer of 1929, then
Book III occupies one year. At this point four years (but five summers)
have passed since Rosemary and Dick first met—not five years, as
Fitzgerald states on page 364. That this is the summer of 1929 gives Dick's
crack-up an ironic significance in view of what will happen on Wall Street
in October. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald's carelessness or confusion blurred
this effect. Indeed, Cowley is convinced that Fitzgerald changed the
time-scheme of the novel after he drew up the preliminary plan, and that
Tender is the Night does in fact cover five years:
We will be told several times that five years have passed since
Rosemary's first visit to the Cap d'Antibes in the summer of 1925. Her
second visit, then, was in June, 1930. The date reveals a change in
Fitzgerald's plans. . . . There is always a sense of historical events in the
background of the novel . . . and many episodes in it have the color of a
special year. At this point, however, the author needed more elapsed time
to accomplish Dick's
ruin—five years instead of four—and actually 1930 was better
for the
historical background than 1929. It was the year when, in spite of the
crash, there were more rich Americans in Europe than ever before and
when the summer season on the Riviera was the biggest and maddest.
[11]
Although Cowley does not account for the year 1929, his idea is supported
by Fitzgerald's statement at the beginning of chapter four of Book III, "The
Villa Diana had been rented again for the summer. . . ."
[12] which indicates that a full year
passes
between the Divers' departure from the clinic and their return to the
Riviera. But my feeling is that this is another piece of Fitzgerald's own
confusion, of which there is ample evidence in the novel. The case for the
four-year time-span rests on two points: it is extremely unlikely that
Fitzgerald would not have mentioned the crash if it had occurred during the
novel; and Tommy's statement on page 353 that his stocks are doing well
hardly belongs to the summer of 1930.
I do agree with Cowley's comment that the year 1926 is unaccounted
for in the action of the first edition.[13]
The trip to Gstaad occurs during December of 1925, and in chapter
fourteen of Book II Fitzgerald states that Dick has been at the clinic for
eighteen months,[14] which would
make the time of this chapter June 1927. But since the Rome chapters that
follow are specifically dated 1928, one year must be accounted for. Cowley
suggests that the Divers remained on the Riviera during 1926 while the
clinic was being renovated. However, it is possible that this is the point
where Fitzgerald lost track of his time-scheme. If the Rome chapters are
moved back to 1927, then Cowley can have his two years for Book III and
I can have my pre-crash conclusion. I have not suggested this change in a
projected edition, though, because Fitzgerald specifies that the Rome
chapters take place in 1928.
Since my study of the composition of Tender is the
Night
has convinced me that the structure of "The Author's Final Version" does
not represent Fitzgerald's best judgment, the first edition should be used as
the copy-text for a projected critical edition. Thus all page references in my
tables are to the first edition.
The list of Emendations to be Made in the First-Edition Copy-Text
includes all changes—substantive, accidental, and
typographical—that
I would make in the first edition. Except in cases where there is a
possibility of confusion I have resisted improving Fitzgerald's punctuation.
His punctuation by ear and eye is frequently wrong, but it was his
system and part of the texture of his work. In this list the first reading is
the emendation to be made in the copy-text; the bracket is followed by the
rejected reading(s) and its sources. The Emendations list is based on the
first edition and records only the changes required in that text. Asterisked
entries are discussed in the Textual Notes.
The Historical Collation records only substantive variants among the
three editions published by Scribner's (1934, Cowley 1951, and Scribner
Library 1960). Like the Emendations list, the Historical Collation is based
on the copy-text. The first reading is that of a definitive edition; following
the bracket are the rejected readings and their sources. The serial has been
used only as a check on variants in these three editions. The Historical
Collation does not include all variants between the serial and the first
edition, since these would be both voluminous and distracting.
