The Crack-Up is a posthumous collection of essays, letters, and notes by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald and compiled by his lifelong friend, Edmund Wilson for publication by New Directions Publishing in 1945. Three of the essays are collected together under the title "The Crack-Up" and were first published in Esquire magazine in 1936. All of the essays were written by Fitzgerald between the years 1931-37. The three essays titled together as "The Crack-Up" were written as Fitzgerald suffered from his nervous breakdownKazin, Alfred. “An American Confession (on F. Scott Fitzgerald).” Twentieth Century American Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chelsea House, 2022. Infobase, https://access.infobase.com/article/12786372-american-confession-f-scott-fitzgerald?aid=98817. and what he called emotional bankruptcy.Donaldson, Scott. “The Crisis of Fitzgerald’s ‘Crack-Up.’” F. Scott Fitzgerald, Updated Edition, Chelsea House, 2006. Infobase, https://access.infobase.com/article/12682619-crisis-fitzgeralds-crack-up?aid=98817.Casiraghi, Charlotte. La fêlure. France, Julliard, 2026.
Background After Fitzgerald's death in 1940, Wilson compiled and edited the writings into an anthology (collected together with letters, to and from Fitzgerald, his notebooks, and tributes to his legacy).Trilling, Lionel. “F. Scott Fitzgerald (on The Crack-Up).” Twentieth Century American Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chelsea House, 2022. Infobase, https://access.infobase.com/article/12786373-f-scott-fitzgerald-crack-up?aid=98817
Wilson intended that the collection would "make an autobiographical sequence which vividly puts on record his state of mind and his point of view during the later years of his life."
Contents "Echoes of the Jazz Age", first published in Scribner's Magazine, November 1931 "My Lost City", July 1932 "Ring", first published in the New Republic, 11 October 1933 "Show Mr. and Mrs. F. To Number-", May/June, 1934 "Auction-Model 1934", by Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, July 1934 "Sleeping and Waking", December 1934 "Lamp in the Window," a poem by Fitzgerald with introductory verses by the editor, first published in The New Yorker in 1935 "The Crack-Up", February 1936, first published in Esquire Collected together under the title The Crack-Up: "The Crack-Up" (originally printed in Esquire magazine, February 1936) "Pasting It Together" (originally printed in Esquire magazine, March 1936) "Handle With Care" (originally printed in Esquire magazine, April 1936) - where Fitzgerald deals with emotional bankruptcy, a theme recurring from The Basil and Josephine Stories which he wrote in 1931. "Early Success," October 1937, first published in American Cavalcade "The Note-Books Anecdotes Bright Clippings Conversation and Things Overheard Descriptions of Things and Atmosphere Epigrams, Wisecracks and Jokes Feelings and Emotions (without Girls) Description of Girls Descriptions of Humanity (Physical) Ideas Jingles and Songs Karacters Literacy Moments (What People Do) Nonsense and Stray Phrases Observations Rough Stuff Scenes and Situations Titles Unclassified Vernacular Youth and Army Letters to Friends To Edmund Wilson, 26 September 1917, from St. Paul, Minnesota: includes the poems "Boudoir" (by John Peale Bishop and "To Cecilia" (incorporated as prose in Book Two, Chapter III, This Side of Paradise) To Edmund Wilson, Autumn of 1917 from Princeton: includes the poem "The Way of Purgation" (appears in slightly different form in Book Two, Chapter V, This Side of Paradise) To Edmund Wilson, 10 January 1917 , from Fort Leavenworth To John V.A. Weaver, 1921, from St. Paul Several more letters to Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop from various places To Gerald Murphy, 14 September 1940 To Gerald and Sara Murphy To Ernest Hemingway, 8 November 1940 Letters to Frances Scott Fitzgerald Three Letters About The Great Gatsby from Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton and T.S. Eliot A Letter from John Dos Passos A Letter from Thomas Wolfe F. Scott Fitzgerald by Paul Rosenfeld The Moral of Scott Fitzgerald by Glenway Wescott A Note On Fitzgerald by John Dos Passos The Hours by John Peale Bishop
Reception Upon initial publication, the essays were poorly received and many reviewers were openly critical, particularly of the extent of Fitzgerald's personal revelations and his admission of his pessimistic outlook.
William DuBois, writing for The New York Times Book Review, was critical of the publication, and of Fitzgerald himself, describing him as "one of those artists who simply lacked the mental equipment to adjust to the demands of maturity", which DuBois believed was reflected in the essays. DuBois continued, writing that "the whole book is crammed with such yearnings" of over-sentimentalism. DuBois summarised the work by stating that "for all their inanities and juvenile posturings, for all their borrowed melancholy and half-formed wisdom, these notes are a blurred but fascinating blueprint of the development – and the breakdown – of a major literary talent".
The San Francisco Chronicle opined that Fitzgerald was feeling "a little too sorry for himself."
Critics have since referred to the collection as "a compelling psychological portrait and an illustration of an important Fitzgerald[ian] theme."
Legacy French philosopher Gilles Deleuze adopted and further conceptualized the term crack from "The Crack-Up" in The Logic of Sense (Originally in French: Logique du sens, 1969). The title of the 2017 Fleet Foxes album Crack-Up was inspired by these essays. La Fêlure (Julliard, 2026) by Charlotte Casiraghi is a nonfiction work inspired by The Crack-Up and in which she explores emotional vulnerabilities expressed across literature, music, and art.
Editions (United States & United Kingdom)
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Crack-Up. New Directions Publishing. 1945. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1993. New Directions eBook 2009: New Directions Paperback 2009: The Crack-up: With Other Uncollected Pieces. New Directions, 1956. Reprint 1972. The Crack-Up With Other Pieces and Stories. Penguin Books. The Crack-Up and Other Stories. Penguin Modern Classics. The Crack-up, with Other Uncollected Pieces, Note-books and Unpublished Letters: Together with Letters to Fitzgerald from Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Wolfe, and John Dos Passos; and Essays and Poems. United Kingdom, J. Laughlin, 1956. Illustrated edition. Alma Classics. 2018. Crack-Up. Alma Books, 2018. The Crack-Up, Selections from The Notebooks, Show Mr. and Mrs. F to Number-, Sleeping and Waking, My Lost City, and Selections from the Letters are published in On Booze, New Directions, 2025. New Directions Paperback- NDP1652. .
Translations French: La fêlure. Translated by Roger Grenier and Marc Chénetier. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2014. French: La Fêlure et autres nouvelles (The Crack-Up and other short stories). Translated by Roger Grenier. Folio Bilingue. 2004. German: Der Knacks. Translated by Walter Schürenberg. Berlin: Merve, 1984. Includes the essay by Gilles Deleuze, "Porzellan und Vulkan" (English: "Porcelain and the Volcano") that appears in Deleuze's separate work, The Logic of Sense. Italian: Il crollo. Translated by Ottavio Fatica. Adelphi Edizioni. 2010. Spanish: El Crack-Up. Translated by Mariano Antolín Rato. Capitán Swing Libros 2012. Spanish: Second Illustrated Edition. Anagrama 1991. Spanish: El Crack-Up. Grupo Planeta. Argentina. 2013.
Bibliography Donaldson, S. (2006). The crisis of Fitzgerald’s “crack-up.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald, Updated Edition. Chelsea House. Infobase Rielly, E.J. (2005). Chapter 8 THE CRACK-UP PERIOD: FITZGERALD HITS BOTTOM (1934–1937). In F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography (pp. 85–93). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Retrieved May 12, 2026, from Bloomsbury Collection Seltzer, C. (2025). “Very Distinctly Not Modern”: Teaching “The Crack-Up” Alongside “Babylon Revisited”. In L. Rattray & L. Wagner-Martin (Ed.). Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald (pp. 383–390). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved May 12, 2026, from Bloomsbury Collection Trilling, L. (2022). F. Scott Fitzgerald (on The crack-up). In Twentieth Century American Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chelsea House. Infobase West, J.L. (2025). Fitzgerald’s Nonfiction. In L. Rattray & L. Wagner-Martin (Ed.). Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald (pp. 233–244). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved May 12, 2026, from Bloomsbury Collection
References
External links The Crack-Up By F. Scott Fitzgerald, Esquire. Originally published in Esquires February, March, and April 1936 issues. My Lost City: Personal Essays, 1920-1940, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Several of the stories in The Crack-Up are printed here too.