Behind the Glamour: Inside (and Outside) F. Scott Fitzgerald's Lake Forest
Opening April 4, available through October 4, 2025
It’s been 100 years since the publication of The Great Gatsby, on April 10, 1925. The novel became the highest selling work of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), though it only began to perform well after his death. Considered a literary masterpiece, the novel examines wealth and high society, belonging (or not), lost love, and pursuing the unachievable dream. The story is centered on Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man in pursuit of the woman he believes he lost because of his humble beginnings.
The narrator, Nick Carraway, holds many of the traits of Fitzgerald himself: a midwestern boy from a solidly middle class family, educated at an Ivy League school, and humming along the edge of society life through his wealthier connections. Fitzgerald, a Princetonian (though not a graduate), came from St. Paul, and had a socially prominent relative in Lake Forest, with whom he stayed repeatedly during his college years, attending society parties and rubbing elbows with wealthy Lake Forest families.
But Fitzgerald also shared much with his main character as well. Like Gatsby, he had an early adoration for a young socialite, who captivated him throughout his lifetime. Ginevra King (1898-1980), a Lake Forester, long remained a muse for Fitzgerald as the elusive young love who rejected him. Fitzgerald believed that he had been spurned because he wasn’t born to affluence. Like Gatsby, he didn’t lack for ego, and thought his writing skills and social charm should have been enough. Was wealth why he was rejected by Ginevra King, or were there other reasons?
This exhibition explores the era that Fitzgerald wrote about, the Lake Forest that Fitzgerald experienced, and the real local people behind the characters in The Great Gatsby and other stories. Was it all money and frivolity? What were the boundaries to high society that Fitzgerald missed? There’s more to this story than The Great Gatsby covered.