An inscribed first edition copy of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has sold for $191,000 at Bonhams.
It provided the headline lot of the Voices of the 20th Century auction in New York on June 16.
 The Great Gatsby is considered a masterpiece of American literature |
Fitzgerald addresses the book to a screenwriter friend he worked on a film with.
He writes: "For Harold Goldman / The original 'Gatsby' of this story, with thanks for letting me reveal these secrets of his past / Alcatraz / Cell Block 17 / (I'll be out soon, kid. Remember me to the mob. Fitzgerald)."
Bonhams explains: "The two men worked together on A Yank at Oxford, 1938, starring Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh.
"Jay Gatsby, of course, was another 'Yank at Oxford,' famously claiming to Nick Carraway that "all my ancestors have been educated there…
"Fitzgerald, of course, was made very unhappy by both the financial need which compelled him to join the lists of Hollywood screenwriters ('jerks with Underwoods' in Jack Warner's estimation) and by his pronounced lack of success in those lists.
"'Cell Block 17' is an apparent reference to his office in the writers' building and 'Alcatraz' the MGM lot."
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