Matthew Joseph Bruccoli (August 21, 1931 – June 4, 2008)Lee Higgins,

", ''

The State A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory. Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrat ...

'', June 5, 2008. Retrieved on June 5, 2008William Grim
"Matthew J. Bruccoli, 76, Scholar, Dies; Academia’s Fitzgerald Record Keeper
,

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, June 6, 2008. Retrieved on May 10, 2010 was an American professor of English at the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

. He was an expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald; his biography of Fitzgerald, published in 1981, was considered the standard biography for decades. He also wrote about other writers, including

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, '' Look Homeward, Angel'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last ye ...

, and

John O'Hara John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was an American writer. He was one of America's most prolific writers of Short story, short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'H ...

, and was editor of the ''

Dictionary of Literary Biography The ''Dictionary of Biography in literature, Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale (Cengage), Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods ...

''.

Early life and education

Matthew Joseph Bruccoli was born in 1931 in

The Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

to Joseph Bruccoli and Mary Gervasi.Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014 He graduated from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

in 1949. He studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where one of his professors was the noted author

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

, and at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. On campus, he was a founding member of the fledgling Manuscript Society, graduating in 1953. In 1960, he received a PhD in English literature studies from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, where he was supervised by

Fredson Bowers Fredson Thayer Bowers (1905–1991) was an American Bibliography, bibliographer and scholar of Textual criticism, textual editing. Career Bowers was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard University (Ph.D.). He taught at Princeton University ...

. Bruccoli's interest in F. Scott Fitzgerald began in 1947 when he heard a radio broadcast of Fitzgerald's short story "

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz ''The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'' is a novella by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in the June 1922 issue of ''The Smart Set'' magazine, and was included in Fitzgerald's 1922 short story collection '' Tales of the Jazz Age''. Much o ...

".Caroline Lord,
Interview with Matthew Bruccoli
", ''Short Story'', Fall 2006. Retrieved on June 5, 2008. That week he tracked down a copy of ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'', he told interviewers, "and I have been reading it ever since."

Career

Bruccoli taught at the

and the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

early in his career. He settled at the

, where he earned tenure and taught for four decades. He lived in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

, where, according to his ''

'' obituary, he "cut a dash on campus, instantly recognizable by his vintage red Mercedes convertible, Brooks Brothers suits, Groucho mustache and bristling crew cut that dated to his Yale days. His untamed Bronx accent also set him apart." 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. He has edited many of Fitzgerald's works, from ''

This Side of Paradise ''This Side of Paradise'' is the 1920 debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is a handsome middle-class stu ...

'' to Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel, ''

The Last Tycoon ''The Last Tycoon'' is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1941, it was published posthumously under this title, as prepared by his friend Edmund Wilson, a critic and writer. According to ''Publishers Weekly'', the novel is "general ...

''. It had first been published posthumously in 1941. Edited by Bruccoli, it was published in a new version in 1993 as ''The Love of the Last Tycoon,'' part of a collection by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. Bruccoli also edited

Zelda Fitzgerald Zelda Fitzgerald (; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, and socialite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, to a wealthy Southern family, she became locally famous for her beauty and high spirits. In 1920, she marri ...

's only novel ''

Save Me the Waltz ''Save Me the Waltz'' is a 1932 novel by American writer Zelda Fitzgerald. The novel's plot follows the privileged life of Alabama Beggs, a Southern belle who grows up the Deep South during the Jim Crow era and marries David Knight, an aspirin ...

;'' 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 ''Celestial Eyes'' is a 1924 painting by Spain, Spanish painter Francis Cugat and preserved at the Princeton University Library, Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton University Library. The Art Deco, Art Deco style work is the cover of F. Scot ...

", the cover art by

Francis Cugat Francis Cugat, also known as Francisco Coradal-Cougat (May 24, 1893 – July 13, 1981), was a painter and graphic designer whose most famous work was ''Celestial Eyes'', the original 1925 dust jacket for ''The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgeral ...

which appeared on the cover of the first edition, and most modern editions, of ''The Great Gatsby''. In 1969, Bruccoli befriended Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald, the daughter of the Fitzgeralds. In 1976, Bruccoli and Scottie Fitzgerald Smith published ''The 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 the Thomas Cooper Library at

. The collection is valued at nearly $2 million. Bruccoli was general editor of the ''Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography'', published by the

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

. As part of this series, he produced ''F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Descriptive Bibliography'' and, with Richard Layman, ''Ring W. Lardner: A Descriptive Bibliography'' (1976). Bruccoli had written a working draft of the Lardner 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." In 1983, Bruccoli published ''Ross Macdonald / Kenneth Millar: A Descriptive Bibliography'' in the ''Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography.'' Along with Layman, who became recognized as a

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

scholar, and businessman C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., Bruccoli launched the ''

''. 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. One of the books it produced was ''A 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 of

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 1987 Lillian Smith Book Award. Among the glass negatives found under the house was one of a young Modjeska Monteith Simkins. During the preservation of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House,

Catherine Fleming Bruce Catherine Fleming Bruce (born December 3, 1961) is an American author, preservationist, and activist from South Carolina. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Early life and education Catherine Fleming Bruce was born in Kentucky and later ...

worked with Bruccoli for permission to have a portrait of Simkins created directly from the glass plates, for display in the Simkins House.

Personal life

Bruccoli married Arlyn Firkins on October 5, 1957. They had four children: Mary, Joseph, Josephine Owens, and Arlyn Bruccoli.

Death

Bruccoli continued working at the

until being diagnosed with a

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

. He died on June 4, 2008.

Selected works

References

External links

Matthew J. Bruccoli papers
at the University of South Carolina Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruccoli, Matthew J. 1931 births 2008 deaths University of South Carolina faculty Writers from South Carolina Yale University alumni University of Virginia alumni Ohio State University faculty American academics of English literature The Bronx High School of Science alumni University of Virginia faculty American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers