Head and Shoulders by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald | Published: February 1920

Head and Shoulders Synopsis

"Head and Shoulders" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This short story was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in February 1920. Later, "Head and Shoulders" was published in his short stories collection, Flappers and Philosophers, in the same year. Fitzgerald's writing was marked by its unique identity, even in his early works. His skillful characterization and use of vivid yet precise imagery are already evident in this early work - a testament to Fitzgerald's writing brilliance. In this early short story, we can also see his signature penchant for mismatched love interests, which would be a recurring theme in later works.

"Head and Shoulders" presents a captivating look at the unlikely union of two seemingly opposite worlds: Horace Tarbox, an intellectual prodigy, and Marcia Meadow, a performer. After a chance meeting, Horace and Marcia embark on a charming, awkward courtship, and soon after, they tie the knot. See how their love story unfolds in this unique and enchanting tale.

Excerpt from Head and Shoulders Online Book

In 1915 Horace Tarbox was thirteen years old. In that year, he took the examinations for entrance to Princeton University and received a Grade A—excellent—in Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, Xenophon, Homer, Algebra, Plane Geometry, Solid Geometry, and Chemistry.

Two years later while George M. Cohan was composing "Over There," Horace was leading the sophomore class by several lengths and digging out theses on "The Syllogism as an Obsolete Scholastic Form," and during the battle of Chateau–Thierry he was sitting at his desk deciding whether or not to wait until his seventeenth birthday before beginning his series of essays on "The Pragmatic Bias of the New Realists."

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. Fitzgerald attended Princeton University for three years. Though he did not graduate from college, he continued to write short stories throughout his twenties and eventually achieved literary fame with This Side of Paradise when published in 1920. After this success, Fitzgerald wrote three more novels, The Beautiful And Damned (1922), The Great Gatsby (1925), and Tender Is The Night (1934). He is one of the most iconic American authors, best known for his ability to capture the glamour and excess of the 1920s Jazz Age alongside its moral failures. Find out more about F. Scott Fitzgerald at sevenov.com.