Sue Hoover Epstein, independent scholar, is returning to the History Center on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. to speak on the character of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby, who was based on Lake Forester Edith Cummings, winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1923.   Her talk will discuss how F. Scott Fitzgerald knew and admired Cummings and her brother Dexter (a Yale golf champion) and how he immortalized them both in his fiction. 

The Cummings duo were lauded nationally for their golfing prowess, honed at The Onwentsia Club.  Expect to hear many anecdotes from the Golden Age of Golf, and learn how Lake Forest was central to the development of the game.  Epstein's research has focused on The Big Four, the Lake Forest debutantes who fascinated Fitzgerald and provided the model for many of  his most memorable female characters.  Edith Cummings, Ginevra King, Courtney Letts and Peg Carry loomed large on the Society Pages a century ago, and thanks to Fitzgerald,  their exploits, personalities and marital choices defined a generation of modern women.

Sue Hoover Epstein is an Editor and Writer based in California. For the past decade, Sue has been working on a group biography tentatively entitled The Big Four: The Debutantes Who Made F. Scott Fitzgerald Famous, focusing on the quartet of socialites from Lake Forest, IL—Sue’s home town—whose lives fascinated both Fitzgerald and most of America during the first half of the 20th Century. Sue has previously worked as a Magazine Editor for Women’s Sports Magazine as well as Managing Editor of Dossier based in Washington, D.C., as well as a prominent freelance writer. Sue holds an MA in English Literature and BA in Creative Writing from Stanford University.