CHICAGO, IL, April 09, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- We have all read the book at some time in our life. In highschool or college or beyond when we realized it was one of those books we should have read but never did. Or we watched the old Francis Ford Coppola versions of Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow or we caught the Baz Luhrmann remake in 2013. At some point Gatsby crossed our orbit and now it has been one hundred years since F Scott Fitzgerald penned his paean to the American Dream setting the bar for writers ever since to catch that elusive bird, The Great American Novel.

But what most people dont know is the price Fitzgerald paid for his masterpiece. In 1924 he and Zelda and their daughter Scottie snuck off from the parties of New York to the Riviera where Fitzgerald planted his flag to writer his elusive third novel. The drunken revelry and the crushing grind of Saturday Evening Post Stories had stymied his efforts and now over seven months in the hot sands of of the coastal town he would forge the book that would cement his name in the Mt Rushmore of Great American Novelists.

But what followed was heartbreak, an affair, and ultimately a critical and finanical flop. By Christmas of 1925 The Great Gatsby could not be found in stores. It had simply failed to catch the publics imagination. In William Elliott Hazelgroves book Writing Gatsby, we see a very different story than the fabled successful novel that took the world by storm. It would be twenty years later that Gatsby would climb out of the musty cellar of failed literary books and takes it rightful place in the pantheon of Great American Novels. The story of the writing of the book that came to define The American Dream is almost as intriguing as the book itself. Almost.

William Elliott Hazelgrove is the National Bestselling author of ten novels and twelve nonfiction titles. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections, History Book Club Bestsellers, Distinguished Book Award. and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications and has been featured on NPR All Things Considered. The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CSPAN, USA Today, World News Tonight have all covered his books with features. His book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith in development He has two forthcoming books. Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America, Hemingways Attic Hell and Glory in Cuba and the Writing of Old Man and the Sea.

Website: http://www.williamhazelgrove.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wehazelgrove
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelgrove/
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rocketman46
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daRWGT1ySLw

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