In 1939, Fitzgerald’s success as a novelist was in the rear view mirror and he was working in Hollywood, groping for scraps as a freelance writer. At the weekends, he dashed off stories about Pat Hobby, a freelance writer groping for scraps in Hollywood. They were written purely for the money (“Will you wire me if you like it”) but they show how Fitzgerald’s facility meant he could never really turn out a dud, even with the left hand. In this story, Pat is doing rewrites on a script and can only think of one line to add – the title of the story – so decides to do a little research over lunch to help inspire him. Chaos and reversals ensue. It’s a tight little gem of comedy, written in the final year of Fitzgerald’s short life.
First published in Esquire, March 1940, where it can be read online, and subsequently in The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Vol.3 : The Pat Hobby Stories, Penguin Classics, 1986, and The Collected Short Stories, Penguin Modern Classics, 2000
A Personal Anthology 