Forging Ahead by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald | Published: March 30, 1929

Forging Ahead Synopsis

"Forging Ahead" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was published in The Saturday Evening Post on March 30, 1929. This short story is part of the Basil Duke Lee series. Basil is walking home with Ripley when asked whether he is determined to go to Yale at sixteen years old, and Basil tells Ripley that he is sure because Yale has been his dream for as long as he can remember. When he arrives home, Basil sees his mother frantic on the call with her brother Everett. Basil finds out later that his family has lost quite a fortune which disables him from going to Yale.

Excerpt from Forging Ahead Online Book

Basil Duke Lee and Riply Buckner, Jr., sat on the Lees' front steps in the regretful gold of a late summer afternoon. Inside the house the telephone sang out with mysterious promise.

"I thought you were going home," Basil said.

"I thought you were."

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Minnesota to a middle-class family. He attended Princeton University, and although he dropped out before graduating, he became one of the country's most celebrated literary figures. During his lifetime, he published four novels and numerous short stories that continue to inspire generations today. Fitzgerald was an iconic American novelist who wrote extensively during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. He is mainly remembered for his masterpiece "The Great Gatsby," which examines wealth, materialism, and social status themes. His work is often seen as an exploration of excess in America's Roaring Twenties, a period defined by extravagant tastes and lavish lifestyles. Find out more about F. Scott Fitzgerald at sevenov.com.