Fitzgerald, F. Scott | The Vegetable, first edition

Fitzgerald, F. Scott 

The Vegetable. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923 

8vo. Half-title, 2pp. of publisher's advertisements at end; light staining at gutter of preliminary leaves, scattered and light foxing. Publisher's green linen cloth, cover stamped in blind, spine gilt-lettered; some foxing to fore-edge. Original pictorial dust jacket; areas of restoration primarily to folds of jacket, one or two chips. Custom black and red clamshell case.

First edition, first printing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s satirical play, The Vegetable, in the original jacket. 

“Any man who doesn't want to get on in the world, to make a million dollars, and maybe even park his toothbrush in the White House, hasn't got as much to him as a good dog has—he's nothing more or less than a vegetable.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Vegetable 

Though The Vegetable failed to garner positive reviews with contemporary critics, current scholars have drawn parallels with this satirical commentary on the American dream with Fitzgerald’s most notable work. “The failure of The Vegetable…may have provided, in part, an impetus for Fitzgerald to strike out in the new artistic direction that resulted a year and a half later in the publication of The Great Gatsby” (West). 

REFERENCES 

Brucolli A10.1.a; West, “Menken’s Review of Tales of the Jazz Age,” in Menckeniana, 4