F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for The Great Gatsby, a staple of classrooms across the country. Yet his personal preferences reveal a much broader literary appetite. In 1936, during a period of professional and personal turmoil while living in a North Carolina hotel, he prepared a list of 22 essential books for his nurse, Dorothy Richardson.
This list offers a look at the works that shaped his own voice. It includes a mix of philosophy, drama, and fiction from contemporaries and earlier masters. Readers familiar with his work will spot names like Marcel Proust, Leo Tolstoy, and William Faulkner among the titles. Fitzgerald had a specific affinity for the poetry of John Keats, which influenced his prose and provided the title for his novel Tender Is the Night.
The list also highlights his respect for Joseph Conrad, whom he regarded as a crucial influence. Fitzgerald once described Conrad’s novel Nostromo as the most significant work of the preceding 50 years. He openly admitted to learning from Conrad’s craft, particularly the way characters are constructed within the context of society.
Fitzgerald’s own life moved between extreme highs and crushing lows. From his early success with This Side of Paradise to his later years in Hollywood, he lived through the instability he often wrote about. While his health and financial status shifted, his commitment to reading remained a constant throughout his career. This list acts as a historical record of the authors he valued most during his later years.