Matthew J. Bruccoli | |
|---|---|
| Born | Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (1931-08-21)August 21, 1931 |
| Died | June 4, 2008(2008-06-04) (aged 76) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Cornell University Yale University University of Virginia |
| Occupation | Professor of Literature |
| Years active | 1968–2008 |
| Notable work | Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1981) |
| Spouse | Arlyn Firkins |
| Children | 4 |
Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (August 21, 1931 – June 4, 2008)[1][2] was an American professor ofEnglish at theUniversity of South Carolina. He was an expert onF. Scott Fitzgerald; his biography of Fitzgerald, published in 1981, was considered the standard biography for decades. He also wrote about other writers, includingErnest Hemingway,Thomas Wolfe, andJohn O'Hara, and was editor of theDictionary of Literary Biography.
Matthew Joseph Bruccoli was born in 1931 inThe Bronx, New York to Joseph Bruccoli and Mary Gervasi.[3] He graduated from theBronx High School of Science in 1949. He studied atCornell University, where one of his professors was the noted authorVladimir Nabokov,[4] and atYale University. On campus, he was a founding member of the fledglingManuscript Society, graduating in 1953.[3] In 1960, he received a PhD in English literature studies from theUniversity of Virginia, where he was supervised byFredson Bowers.
Bruccoli's interest inF. Scott Fitzgerald began in 1947 when he heard a radio broadcast of Fitzgerald's short story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz".[2][5] That week he tracked down a copy ofThe Great Gatsby, he told interviewers, "and I have been reading it ever since."[2]
Bruccoli taught at theUniversity of Virginia and theOhio State University early in his career. He settled at theUniversity of South Carolina, where he earned tenure and taught for four decades.[2] He lived inColumbia, South Carolina, where, according to hisNew York Times obituary, he "cut a dash on campus, instantly recognizable by his vintage redMercedes convertible, Brooks Brothers suits,Groucho mustache and bristling crew cut that dated to his Yale days. His untamed Bronx accent also set him apart."[2]
Over the course of his career, Bruccoli wrote more than fifty critical books on F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary figures. His 1981 biography of Fitzgerald,Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, is considered the standard Fitzgerald biography.[2] He has edited many of Fitzgerald's works, fromThis Side of Paradise to Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel,The Last Tycoon. It had first been published posthumously in 1941. Edited by Bruccoli, it was published in a new version in 1993 asThe Love of the Last Tycoon, part of a collection byCambridge University Press. Bruccoli also editedZelda Fitzgerald's only novelSave Me the Waltz; she was married to Scott.
While studying Fitzgerald, Bruccoli and his wife Arlyn began to collect all manner of Fitzgerald memorabilia. Bruccoli owned the artist's copy of "Celestial Eyes", the cover art byFrancis Cugat which appeared on the cover of the first edition, and most modern editions, ofThe Great Gatsby. In 1969, Bruccoli befriendedFrances "Scottie" Fitzgerald, the daughter of the Fitzgeralds. In 1976, Bruccoli and Scottie Fitzgerald Smith publishedThe Romantic Egoists, from the scrapbooks that F. Scott and Zelda had maintained. These had included numerous photographs and book reviews. Later in life, Bruccoli and his wife donated their collection to theThomas Cooper Library atUniversity of South Carolina. The collection is valued at nearly $2 million.[1]
Bruccoli was general editor of thePittsburgh Series in Bibliography, published by theUniversity of Pittsburgh Press. As part of this series, he producedF. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography and, withRichard Layman,Ring W. Lardner: A Descriptive Bibliography (1976). Bruccoli had written a working draft of theLardner book in the summer of 1973 before giving it "to his then-graduate-research-assistant Layman to work on checking it. Layman displayed so much aptitude for the assignment that a collaboration seemed obligatory."[6] In 1983, Bruccoli publishedRoss Macdonald / Kenneth Millar: A Descriptive Bibliography in thePittsburgh Series in Bibliography.
Along with Layman, who became recognized as aDashiell Hammett scholar, and businessman C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., Bruccoli launched theDictionary of Literary Biography. The 400-volume reference work contains biographies of more than 12,000 literary figures from antiquity to modern times. In 1962, the firm of Bruccoli Clark Layman was formed to design and publish books.[7] One of the books it produced wasA True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts 1920-1936, published in 1986. It contained photographs printed from glass negatives discovered under the Roberts house in Columbia though the work ofUniversity of South Carolina South Caroliniana Library field archivist Thomas L. Johnson with the cooperation of the Roberts family. A True Likeness won Johnson and co-author Philip C. Dunn the 1987Lillian Smith Book Award.[8][9]
Among the glass negatives found under the house was one of a youngModjeska Monteith Simkins. During the preservation of theModjeska Monteith Simkins House,Catherine Fleming Bruce worked with Bruccoli for permission to have a portrait of Simkins created directly from the glass plates, for display in the Simkins House.[10]
Bruccoli married Arlyn Firkins on October 5, 1957.[3] They had four children: Mary, Joseph, Josephine Owens, and Arlyn Bruccoli.[2]
Bruccoli continued working at theUniversity of South Carolina until being diagnosed with abrain tumor. He died on June 4, 2008.[2]
