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Fitzgerald Might Disagree With His 'No Second Acts' Line Audie Cornish talks to
Kirk Curnutt, vice president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, about the often
misused and misquoted line, "there are no second acts in American lives." A
whole generation of American politicians has fallen from grace, only to rise
again and disprove the line — Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer and now
South Carolina governor turned congressman, Mark Sanford.
   
   
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FITZGERALD MIGHT DISAGREE WITH HIS 'NO SECOND ACTS' LINE

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May 8, 20133:00 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered


FITZGERALD MIGHT DISAGREE WITH HIS 'NO SECOND ACTS' LINE

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Audie Cornish talks to Kirk Curnutt, vice president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald
Society, about the often misused and misquoted line, "there are no second acts
in American lives." A whole generation of American politicians has fallen from
grace, only to rise again and disprove the line — Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich,
Eliot Spitzer and now South Carolina governor turned congressman, Mark Sanford.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

You've likely seen or heard a news story in recent years that began something
like this: F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, there are no second acts in American
lives. But Fitzgerald clearly never met - fill in the blank.

It seems a whole generation of American politicians has fallen from grace only
to rise again and disprove the line: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer.
And just last night, South Carolina's newest congressman, Mark Sanford.

Here's the catch: many Fitzgerald scholars and enthusiasts cringe when they hear
this kind of thing, because they say it's getting the line wrong.

To explain, we're joined by Kirk Curnutt, vice president of the F. Scott
Fitzgerald Society. Welcome to the program.

KIRK CURNUTT: Thank you for having me.

CORNISH: So I understand the line actually appears in two different works by
Fitzgerald?

CURNUTT: Yes, ma'am. It shows up in the unfinished novel that was posthumously
published called "The Last Tycoon" in 1941, where it's just that line sort of
dashed off in the middle of a bunch of working notes. But it actually dates back
earlier, to about 1932, where it's used in a very different way. And I think
that way is probably more in line with Fitzgerald's thinking throughout his
life.

CORNISH: Which is? What was the main thinking there?

CURNUTT: Well, it shows up in an essay called "My Lost City," which is a
beautiful sort of testament to New York and was actually very popular in the
aftermath of 9/11. The line he says here is: I once thought that there were no
second acts in American lives, but there was certainly to be a second act to New
York's boom days.

Clearly he's sort of saying, well, I once believed this but I've been proved
wrong. And I think that's what really gets most of us who are Fitzgerald fans is
that line is always quoted as saying, well, how naive was Fitzgerald to have
said there are no second acts in American lives, when he himself was only a
couple of years away from what many people consider the greatest second act in
American literary history.

CORNISH: What do you think that Fitzgerald would have made of these political
characters that we've been talking about? It's become such a kind of cliche of
American politics, in particular.

CURNUTT: Sure. Well, I think they would have said that's exactly how he intended
that line, sort of ironically. It's interesting because "My Lost City," the
essay in which the line first shows up, really does address this in some way -
not necessarily in the political context. But it does say that we are always
caught between the past and the present, and we carry the burdens of both.

And for all that these politicians do find new successes in life, they are
always remembered for their past failures. And no matter what the future bodes
for Mark Sanford, we'll always remember him for what happened three or four
years ago.

CORNISH: One other thing. I mentioned in the introduction that, you know, people
cringe when they hear this sort of thing. But do you? I mean, as someone who
obviously, you know, is a scholar of Fitzgerald, what's your reaction when you
hear that line thrown around?

CURNUTT: Well, I have to be very honest. Of all the beautiful lines that I adore
that F. Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote, this is the one I really hate. I wince when
I hear it, partly because it's used as a way of saying how sort of naive and
shortsighted he was. But also, because for those of us who really adore
Fitzgerald, the problem with that is we don't like our man to be cynical.

Fitzgerald was an optimist. For all that he went through in life and for sort of
how low he was at the end of his life, he really did - like Jay Gatsby - believe
in the green light. And he was trying to be optimistic to the core. I think he
thought that "The Last Tycoon" would be his second act, that it would reinvent
him if he could finish it.

It's a very different book than "The Great Gatsby." I'm not convinced it would
have been better than. But it would have been a new and different and mature
Fitzgerald. And I think that's part of the reason that we object to it, is it
just seems like it's so out of context.

CORNISH: That's Kirk Curnutt, vice president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society.
Thank you so much for speaking with us.

CURNUTT: Thank you for having me.

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