Among the love stories in American literature, one that is most enduring did not unfold in a novel but in real life.
In 1918, Lt. F. Scott Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre, the 18-year-old daughter of a judge, at a country club dance in Montgomery, Ala., where he was stationed. That chance encounter led to a 22-year romance that would become the subject of biographies and movies, accounts told from an outsider’s perspective. But in “Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda,” a collection of more than 300 letters they exchanged, the reader hears their own distinctive voices. Zelda writes in direct yet passionate prose, Fitzgerald with a poetic flair reminiscent of his fiction. The result is an engrossing account of their love story — full of longing and ardor, heartbreak and betrayal.
