'Full heart, full life'

 

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” – Zelda Fitzgerald

Born in Alabama on this date in 1900, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was a prominent Socialite noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband Scott as "the first American Flapper.”  She and Scott became emblems of The Jazz Age, for which they are still celebrated.   

 

A great writer of journals, she often is credited with providing key material for her husband’s book This Side of Paradise.  He also often used her as the inspiration for his other key female characters, including Daisy in The Great Gatsby.  Her own artistic endeavors included a semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, a play entitled Scandalabra, and numerous magazine articles, short stories and paintings.

 

She said her life was meant to be “lived!” especially through love of those around her.  She “lived hard” and died young – in her mid-40s.   “I don't want to just live,” Fitzgerald said.  “I want to love first and live incidentally.”