Everything about Ginevra King totally explained
Ginevra King (1898-1980) was a
American socialite,
Chicago, Illinois debutante, and the inspirational
muse for several characters in the work of
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Early life
She was born in Chicago in 1898, the daughter of Ginevra and Charles Garfield King. (She, as with her mother and grandmother, was named after
da Vinci's painting
Ginevra de Benci.) Charles G. King was a wealthy Chicago businessman and financier. She was the eldest of three sisters and grew up amidst the Chicago social scene, even being a member of the elite "
Big Four" Chicago debutantes during World War I. She attended the
Westover School in
Middlebury, Connecticut.
Relationship with Fitzgerald
Ginevra first met Fitzgerald on
January 4,
1915, while visiting her roommate from Westover, Marie Hershey, in
St. Paul, Minnesota. They met at sledding party and, according to letters and diary entries, they both became infatuated. They sent letters back and forth for months, and their passionate romance continued until January
1917. In August
1916, Fitzgerald first wrote down the words, thought to have been said to him by Charles King, that would later recur in
The Great Gatsby:
"Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls."
Later life
On July 15, 1918, King wrote to Fitzgerald, telling of her engagement to William Mitchell, the son of her father's business associate. They married later that year and had three children. Then in 1937, she left Mitchell for businessman John T. Pirie, Jr. (
Carson Pirie Scott & Company). That year she also met Fitzgerald for the last time in Hollywood; when asked which character was based on her in
The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald replied,
"Which bitch do you think you are?"
King later founded the Ladies Guild of the American Cancer Society. She died in 1980 at the age of 82.
Literary legacy
King is thought to have exerted a great influence on Fitzgerald's writing, perhaps even more than his relationship with his wife, Zelda. His work abounds with characters modeled on King. These characters include:
King is also featured in the books
The Perfect Hour by James L.W. West III, and in a fictionalized form in
Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ginevra King'.
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