FITZGERALD, F. Scott (1896-1940). Autograph manuscript signed (“Scott”), being his replies to “The Dunlap Question,” n.p., n.d.

“Read your Ecclesiastes…”
F. Scott Fitzgerald on life and death matters.

Fitzgerald attempts to answer the “Dunlap Question:” whether, after making a survey of your life you would choose to live again exactly the same or to die at once. He returns this to the literary critic Gilbert Seldes. Seldes had panned Fitzgerald’s work professionally (except for The Great Gatsby) but this did not prevent a close friendship between the two men. Fitzgerald’s comments are skeptical of the premise of the question, but still revealing. He chooses life, answering “yes” twice. There are then seven follow-up questions, several of which have expanded replies. To the question "Do you think that the more sensitive a person is the more likely he or she is to choose the instant death?" he answers: "It's a question of vitality, not of experience or logic," and to "Do you think that the wiser or more philosophical a person is the more he would choose to live again? Or to die?" the reply is: "Live in youth. Die at the proper time."

One page, penciled replies on a typed questionnaire, 280 x 215mm (top left with a little soiling and a small tear and pinhole). Provenance: Gilbert Seldes, writer and critic, 1893-1970 (authorial inscription to Gilbert) – Sotheby’s New York, 11 December 2008, lot 60.