University of South Carolina Libraries is celebrating the centennial of what some consider to be “the great American novel” in style. The Spring 2025 exhibit, “’Something significant, elemental, and profound’: Celebrating 100 Years of The Great Gatsby,” not only explores the history of the novel, as well as it’s adaptations and effect on American literature, but also dives into Fitzgerald’s public and private life.
The materials on display are all housed in the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, with most coming from the Matthew J. & Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald, which constitutes the most comprehensive research collection for the study and teaching of Fitzgerald, those associated with him, and his times. Michael Wesienburg, Director of the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, curated and assembled the exhibit from the library’s holdings. Full of diverse media and artifacts, the exhibit also explores essential details of Fitzgerald’s life and provides rich cultural context for the novel.
“The Gatsby exhibit really tells a fascinating story about what is now an American and even global cultural phenomenon,” says David Banush, Dean of Libraries at the University. “The novel was considered a commercial failure at publication but has since become a staple of American literature and inspired several films, an opera, and even a forthcoming manga graphic novel from Japan.”
The exhibit cases feature items from Fitzgerald’s youth, such as his report card and a photo of him and his mother, to items from him and his wife to be Zelda’s courtship, all the way up to letters sent between his editor and his wife in the immediate aftermath of his death. Items also include several postcards personally inscribed by Fitzgerald to his daughter, Scottie. Viewers get a personal look into the Fitzgeralds’ private lives, full of success, partying, lavish expenses, troubled times, and heartache. Notable items featured include the book contract, galley proofs and first edition of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s manuscript ledger book, letters written while he was drafting the novel, and inscribed and annotated copies.
The exhibit is designed not only to highlight the novel, which was originally published in April of 1925, but to take viewers a step further into its cultural context. “I wanted to bring people into the world of the novel,” Weisenburg said. There is a case on flappers, and “youth culture” during the Jazz Age, as well as a case on Jazz music during the 1920s. Alongside these are cases that include contemporaneous works of literature and short stories published during the Jazz age, as well as items from many of Fitzgerald’s contemporaries including Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein and others. These items range from personal effects or letters to personally inscribed works addressed to Scott, and even opinions on the novel from Scott’s contemporaries.
The exhibit also considers the long and broad cultural impact of the novel. The Great Gatsby has been adapted into movies, stage performances and magazine editions, and even makes several appearances in comic book runs and adaptations as well as armed service editions. Though it is a contender for “the Great American Novel” the book is also an important piece of world literature and has been translated into over forty languages. There are two cases on these translated editions, both put together by Rachel Loging, a Junior English major at the University and student assistant in Rare Books. Loging has been digitizing the items in the exhibit for a digital version of the exhibit which will be going live later this semester.
“It’s always going to be interesting seeing all of the materials side by side,” Loging said. “When I was putting together the foreign edition case it was so fascinating to see how The Great Gatsby has resonated with so many audiences all over the world and how they interpreted it themselves.”
The Great Gatsby is widely read throughout the country by middle school, high school, and even college students alike. What keeps people coming back? How does it continue to stand the test of time?
“I feel like this exhibit helps people break out of that thinking that it is just a book you read in middle school or high school,” Loging said. “When you see the context of the novel, and the works in the exhibit, it shows you it’s not this cliché novel. I think any story that deals with a person trying to achieve dreams in a place where it is just not possible for them to is always going to be relevant, because it speaks to human nature.”
The exhibit opened on January 24th and will be open to the public until July 15. You can find a list of events happening throughout the semester below. Public viewing hours for the exhibit are Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm.
February 4th – Jazz Ensemble Performance in the exhibit by USC Jazz students
February 13th- Student screening of Leonardo Di Caprio’s The Great Gatsby (2013)
March 25th – Lightning Talk Roundtable with University Faculty discussing themes in the novel
April 10th – Read Aloud of the novel in honor of the 100th anniversary of the publication date.
Follow the Libraries on social media to stay up to date on events, as well as times.