An Apprehension of Splendor: A Biography in Photographs of F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Family  

By Shawn Sudia-Skehan 

University of Alabama Press, 2025 

Hardcover, $49.95 

Genre:   Arts & Photography  Photo Essays 

Reviewed by Alaina M. Doten, Ph.D. 

 

the cover of An Apprehension of Splendor features images of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his family

An Apprehension of Splendor: A Biography in Photographs of F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Family, by Shawn Sudia-Skehan, is a new visual journey into the lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda, and their daughter, Scottie. Published in 2025 by the University of Alabama Press, the 400-page hardcover serves as a new companion to The Romantic Egoists (1974), the influential scrapbook-style collection by Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Joan P. Kerr. 

While The Romantic Egoists blended letters, reviews, and images, Sudia-Skehan’s book takes a different approach, focusing almost entirely on photography to bring the Fitzgeralds’ world to life. Drawing on the Matthew J. Bruccoli Collection at the University of South Carolina, as well as the Princeton Archives and the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, Sudia-Skehan assembles a rich visual archive that offers a new look into the lives of one of America’s most celebrated literary families. 

At its heart are 344 black-and-white photographs—180 of them previously unpublished—carefully selected and annotated by Sudia-Skehan, formerly the director of acquisitions at the Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. These are not the glamorous, staged portraits often associated with the Fitzgeralds’ Jazz Age legend, but candid, everyday images that reveal the humanity behind their myth. We see young Scott cradling a puppy in Buffalo, Zelda playfully posing under a loblolly pine, and Scottie being pulled through the snow in a laundry basket—moments of warmth, humor, and family life that rarely appear in the public record. 

The photographs are presented in a spacious, chronological design that allows each image to stand on its own. The black-and-white format enhances their timeless quality, while Sudia-Skehan’s concise, insightful captions provide just enough context to guide the reader without overshadowing the images. The book is divided into six sections, tracing the arc of the Fitzgeralds’ lives: Scott’s youth, Zelda’s formative years, their shared life together, the family with Scottie, Zelda, and Scottie after Scott died in 1940, and finally Scottie’s life after both of her parents’ deaths. The structure creates a narrative rhythm that mirrors both the triumphs and the struggles of the family. 

Sudia-Skehan’s use of personal letters and ephemera from the Bruccoli Collection lends the work a personal touch. The foreword by Fitzgerald scholar Jackson R. Bryer, accompanied by an introduction by Eleanor Lanahan, Scottie’s daughter and head of the Fitzgerald Estate, adds both scholarly weight and personal perspective, grounding the visual story in both academic and family history. 

For readers familiar with Fitzgerald’s novels—The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned—the images provide a glimpse into the real-life people and places that informed Scott’s fiction. A photograph of Scott and Zelda on the French Riviera echoes the troubled glamor of Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender is the Night, while images from their European travels show the restlessness that shaped both Scott’s writing and Zelda’s art. Zelda’s own creativity also shines here, with reproductions of her paintings and writings interwoven with photographs that capture her beauty, charm, and personal struggles. Scottie, often overlooked in her parents’ shadow, emerges in her own right as a journalist and author. 

The book’s design is elegant yet accessible. The University of Alabama Press has produced an affordable but significant volume that effectively utilizes black and white photography. The captions are brief but precise, balancing clarity with Sudia-Skehan’s deep knowledge of the Fitzgeralds. 

Some readers may wish for more narrative prose, but the decision to let the images dominate is deliberate and appreciated. Where The Romantic Egoists sought to tell the Fitzgeralds’ story through a greater variety of sources and materials, An Apprehension of Splendor relies on the power of the selected images. 

The result is a volume that feels both intimate and new. With 400 pages of carefully curated photographs, it offers a fresh exploration of the Fitzgeralds. For Fitzgerald enthusiasts, literary scholars, or anyone enchanted by the Jazz Age, Sudia-Skehan’s book is an essential addition to their collection—a work of dedication by one of Fitzgeralds’ greatest admirers. 

 

Alaina M. Doten, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum and the producer of the FitzMuse and FitzTales podcasts.