Ginevra King

Ginevra King (1898-1980) was an American socialite, Chicago, Illinois debutante, and the inspirational muse for several characters in the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Early life

She was born in Chicago in 1898, the daughter of Ginevra and Charles Garfield King. (She, as with her mother and grandmother, was named after da Vinci's painting Ginevra de Benci.) Charles G. King was a wealthy Chicago businessman and financier. She was the eldest of three sisters and grew up amidst the Chicago social scene, even being a member of the elite "Big Four" Chicago debutantes during World War I. She attended the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut.

Relationship with Fitzgerald

Ginevra first met Fitzgerald on January 4, 1915, while visiting her roommate from Westover, Marie Hershey, in St. Paul, Minnesota. They met at sledding party and, according to letters and diary entries, they both became infatuated. [Noden, Merrell. [http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW03-04/04-1105/feature1.html "Fitzgerald's first love"] . - "Princeton Alumni Weekly" - November 5, 2003] They sent letters back and forth for months, and their passionate romance continued until January 1917. In August 1916, Fitzgerald first wrote down the words, thought to have been said to him by Charles King, that would later recur in "The Great Gatsby": "Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls."Smith, Dinitia. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E0D8163BF93BA3575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "Love Notes Drenched In Moonlight; Hints of Future Novels In Letters To Fitzgerald"] . - "The New York Times" - September 8, 2003]

Later life

On July 15, 1918, King wrote to Fitzgerald, telling of her engagement to William Mitchell, the son of her father's business associate. They married later that year and had three children. Then in 1937, she left Mitchell for businessman John T. Pirie, Jr. (Carson Pirie Scott & Company). That year she also met Fitzgerald for the last time in Hollywood; when asked which character was based on her in "The Beautiful and Damned", Fitzgerald replied, "Which bitch do you think you are?"

King later founded the Ladies Guild of the American Cancer Society. She died in 1980 at the age of 82.

Literary legacy

King is thought to have exerted a great influence on Fitzgerald's writing, perhaps even more than his relationship with his wife, Zelda. His work abounds with characters modeled on King. These characters include: [Stepanov, Renata. [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/09/15/news/8488.shtml "Family of Fitzgerald's lover donates correspondence"] . - "The Daily Princetonian - Monday, September 15, 2003]

* Judy Jones in "Winter Dreams"
* Isabelle Borge in "This Side of Paradise"
* Most notably, Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby"
* Fitzgerald also recreated their meeting in "Babes in the Woods," from the collection "Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Other Stories"; this was reused in "This Side of Paradise".

King is also featured in the books "The Perfect Hour" by James L.W. West III, and in a fictionalized form in "Gatsby's Girl" by Caroline Preston. The musical "The Pursuit of Persephone" tells the story of King's romance with Fitzgerald.

References

Further reading

* Preston, Caroline. [http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=689522 "Gatsby's Girl"] . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2006. ISBN 0618537252
* West, James L. W. [http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812973273 "The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love"] . New York: Random House. 2005. ISBN 9781400063086

External links

* Stevens, Ruth. [http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/03/0907/1c.shtml Before Zelda, there was Ginevra] . - at Princeton Weekly Bulletin - September 7, 2003
* Preston, Caroline. [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5420283 Excerpt: "Gatsby's Girl"] . - at NPR - Weekend Edition Sunday, May 21, 2006