The Friendship of Two Writers

Want to know a bit of uncommon knowledge about two of the world's most praised writers?

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer born in 1899. He is wildly successful and produced books the many booklovers treasure to this day. Some of the favorites being ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and ‘ The Sun Also Rises’. He went on to win a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer Prize for his writing. Not to mention a bronze star medal for his time in the war. Hemingway was also known for being a raging alcoholic. It is rumored that he once drank sixteen daiquiris in one night, which is awful for your liver but a bit impressive. Although he is mostly famous for his many books I know him from one simple quote.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, better known as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novelist born in 1896. Born in Minnesota, but raised mostly in New York, Fitzgerald also became a world renowned writer. His books ‘The Beautiful and The Damned’ and ‘Tender is the Night’ are some of his most well known works. Regardless, nothing compares to his masterpiece ‘The Great Gatsby’. Although he didn’t win many awards, he was well respected in the writer community. Still, one of the first things that comes to mind when someone says F. Scott Fitzgerald, is his wife Zelda. They meet at very young ages, Zelda eighteen and Fitzgerald 22. After Fitzgerald returned from war, he settled down and began writing. He based many of his characters off of Zelda and himself.

You may not know that Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were actually pretty close friends. Like many relationships in both writers' lives, it was a tortured friendship. Fitzgerald was an all American handsome man who, with help from Zelda, rose to a celebrity status at a young age. Hemingway was always described as a more intense and angry man, as well as a drunk. ( Reminder, he was considered a drunk in the roaring 1920s. The time of large parties and a lot of illegal alcohol.) When Hemmingway encountered hard times, Fitzgerald was happy to lend a hand.

During the time that Hemmingway and Fitzgerald were friends, Zelda was hospitalized numerous times. She was known to be a mentally fragile woman, often having mental breakdowns. She was at some point diagnosed with schizophrenia. As time went on, the fragile state Zelda was in put tension on her relationship with Fitzgerald.

So here is my ‘fun fact’ that I’m betting you didn’t know.

Fitzgerald showed Hemmingway his ‘package’ and asked him for his opinion on it’s size. The two writers often conversed via letter and in one Fitzgerald wrote,

“Zelda said that the way I was built I could never make any woman happy and that was what upset her originally. She said it was a matter of measurements .I have never felt the same since she said that and I have to know truly”

Hemingway tried to comfort his friend by saying that it seemed average in size and shouldn’t be seen as a concern. Although an odd situation, he did his best to soothe his friend's embarrassment and offer advice.

Short story short, these two men might have been very different but they were definitely close friends. It is rare that anyone really mentions the two of them at the same time but they did share a close friendship, even during the great depression. They both wrote some masterpieces and taught many lessons through their writing. They also taught us a great lesson about how to be there for your friends in their times of need.