The Great Gatsby

Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: the love letters of F. Scott and Zelda FitzgeraldAnything Goes: a biography of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy MooreNight JazzEncyclopedia of the Jazz Age by James CimentDaily Life in the United States, 1920-1939 by David E. KyvigThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.  Join us for Movie Matinee on Monday, February 17, 1 pm to watch "The Great Gatsby" starring Leo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.

If you’d like to read more about the roaring twenties, and the Jazz age, check out some of these titles:

“Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda : the love letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Through his alcoholism and her mental illness, his career highs (and lows) and her institutional confinement, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's devotion to each other endured for more than twenty-two years. Now, for the first time, the story of the love of these two glamorous and hugely talented writers can be given in their own letters.

“Flappers and the new American woman : perceptions of women from 1918 through the 1920s” by Catherine Gourley
This fascinating overview of American women’s lives during the 1920s covers far more than just the stereotypical images of glamorous, Jazz Age flappers.

“Anything goes : a biography of the roaring twenties” by Lucy Moore
The glitter of 1920s America was seductive, from jazz, flappers, and wild all-night parties to the birth of Hollywood and a glamorous gangster-led crime scene flourishing under Prohibition.

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

“Night Jazz” by Jill Shure
Pink Ladies and Black Velvets wet the whistles of guys and dolls in smoky underground speakeasies and elegant hubs like the Casino in Central Park, where anything goes. But in October 1929, two events are about to collide: The arrival of Jeri Devlin and the stock market crash.

“Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age : from the end of World War I to the great crash” by James Ciment
Edited by Ciment (Social Issues in America), this two-volume illustrated encyclopedia brings together articles and thematic essays that capture the social, political, economic, and cultural spirit of the Jazz Age, that era extending from the end of World War I to the stock market crash of 1929.

“The roaring twenties” by Stuart A. Kallen
It was a time of flappers, Model T Fords, a soaring stock market, Lucky Lindy and bootleg gin. The Roaring Twenties relives the 1920s through the eyes of those who witnessed it first hand, and brings the excitement, frivolity, and cultural transformation of that era to life.

“Daily life in the United States, 1920-1939 : decades of promise and pain” by David E. Kyvig
The twenties and thirties witnessed dramatic changes in American life: increasing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster. In this fascinating book, the prize-winning historian David E. Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became commonplace, when radio and the movies became broadly popular.