USC’s amazing ‘Gatsby’ collection makes American novel great again | Opinion

“The Great Gatsby” has been called the Great American Novel. It’s long been a staple of assigned reading from high school to graduate school. It’s a favorite of all sorts of readers, from scholars who examine its intricacies to casual readers who simply enjoy its human story. It’s been made into four movie adaptations, with Alan Ladd, Robert Redford, Toby Stephens and Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.

During World War II, the U.S. military sent more than 150,000 copies of the novel to servicemen stationed across the globe. It is so loved by Bill Gates that he has a quote from it spelled out in large, raised bronze letters around a curved ledge on the rotunda of his home library.

It also has an amazing connection to South Carolina.

One hundred years ago, in the spring of 1925, a young F. Scott Fitzgerald, already well known from his first two wildly successful novels, published his third. Barely 200 pages, it was shorter and more introspective than his others, and full of characters who ran the gamut from the sensitive title character to despicable people whose wealth has made them vacuous and shallow. The novel is also about the pursuit of the American Dream, something we still find ourselves trying to define and attain, especially in these challenging days.

“The Great Gatsby” has never lost its universal appeal, and writers have documented the novel’s undying allure across American culture. It has been referenced in such wildly divergent places as episodes of “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” and comic strips by Charles M. Schulz in which Snoopy ruminates on Gatsby’s life. Fitzgerald’s novel has spawned an opera, Broadway shows and the aforementioned movie adaptations.

Now, on the novel’s 100th anniversary, it is being celebrated on the campus of the University of South Carolina. There is a special exhibit in the Hollings Library, located in the main Thomas Cooper library on campus, and it is full of items from Fitzgerald’s career, first edition copies of “The Great Gatsby,” personal items from Fitzgerald’s life and an unparalleled look at why this novel and its author are still being lauded 100 years after the novel’s publication.

Many universities are paying special attention to Fitzgerald’s novel during this centennial year, but none can parallel what is on display at USC. The reason for this is simple and boils down to the career of one man: Dr. Matthew J. Bruccoli.

The late Dr. Bruccoli was an English professor at the university for over 30 years and became renowned as the premier Fitzgerald scholar in the nation, known as “the dean of Fitzgerald scholarship” around the world. He wrote dozens of books about Fitzgerald and published what is still considered the definitive Fitzgerald biography titled “Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

Fitzgerald scholars and fans from all over came to Columbia to meet Dr. Bruccoli. In the late 1990s, publisher and financier Steve Forbes arrived for a speech I helped arrange. He had one specific request in agreeing to come to Columbia, and that was to meet Dr. Bruccoli and see the Fitzgerald collection that USC had.

Forbes is a huge Fitzgerald fan and his own alma mater Princeton coveted many of the items that Dr. Bruccoli had acquired at USC. Forbes joked that he wished he could move both Dr. Bruccoli and the collection to Princeton.

Dr. Bruccoli and his wife donated 3,000 books, journals, periodicals by and about Fitzgerald, and numerous personal items that Fitzgerald owned, to the university, creating an invaluable collection. Today, the Matthew J. & Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the world’s most comprehensive compendiums of the author’s life and works. This collection is the heart of USC’s current special exhibit and allows us to see the Fitzgerald treasures that the university owns.

So why are we still so fascinated by this sliver of a novel?

Literary experts, including Dr. Bruccoli, have offered a variety of reasons. It is, after all, a love story, one in which Gatsby, a rather mysterious man, is hopelessly in love with a woman who is ultimately unattainable. It is also set in the Jazz Age mansions of Long Island and chronicles the lives of the rich, often awful characters who inhabit them.

But more importantly, “The Great Gatsby” is about a man who tries very hard to obtain the American Dream. The Gatsby quote that Bill Gates has inscribed on the wall in his home library reads, “His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”

In an age in which universities are being attacked by the current administration, and in which academic freedom is being challenged, it is wonderful to remember that universities not only perform life-changing research in science, engineering and medicine that benefit so many, but they also offer us the opportunity to learn more about our American culture over the decades. At the same time, they offer us the opportunity to learn more about ourselves and this American life we all lead.

The University of South Carolina’s “The Great Gatsby” exhibit is free and open to the public at the Hollings Library in the Thomas Cooper Library building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until July 15.

This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "USC’s amazing ‘Gatsby’ collection makes American novel great again | Opinion."