GINEVRA KING PIRIE was a Lake Forest, Illinois socialite and heiress who had a two year (mostly) long-distance relationship with famed American author Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a student at Princeton University, while Ginevra was in high school at Westover during part of this time (January 1915 to July 1917).
Ginevra was the inspiration and basis for several of Fitzgerald's female characters over the years, in both his short stories, and in at least two of his novels.
The most memorable of these characters is Daisy Fay Buchanan in the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. Daisy was based entirely on Ginevra King, with one notable exception: The character Daisy hailed from Louisville, Kentucky, not Illinois. It was Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda Sayre, who hailed from the South (Montgomery, Alabama).
F. Scott Fitzgerald characters known to be based on Ginevra (The first listed was Fitzgerald's debut novel, and contained two characters, both based in part on Ginevra):
Isabelle Borgé and Rosalind Connage
in This Side Of Paradise
Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby
Judy Jones in Winter Dreams
Isabelle Borgé in Babes In The Woods
Josephine in all 5 Josephine Perry Stories
Josephine in 3 of The Basil Stories
Marjorie Harvey in Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
∼She was a rich debutante named after a da Vinci painting.
Ginevra was author F. Scott Fitzgerald's first love. She was also reportedly the woman who served as the principal inspiration (character "Daisy Buchanan") for Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."
Ginevra met a 19-year-old Fitzgerald in his hometown of St. Paul in 1915 when she was still attending the Westover boarding school and he was a student at Princeton. The two appear to have been almost immediately smitten with each other as they began to exchange a series of letters, some of which were released for the first time only 10 years ago. But, by January 1917, the letter-writing slowed and the fling was over after Ginevra's father reportedly told Fitzgerald,"Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls."
After an impassioned courting period with Fitzgerald, King announced her engagement to William Mitchell, a wealthy Chicago man.
King married Mitchell in 1918, not long after dumping Fitzgerald. She eventually divorced Mitchell, remarried and settled into an ornate Lake Forest home that was originally built for King's banker father, Charles B. King, as a summer getaway. Ms. King died in 1980 at the age of 82.
All photos provided courtesy the Chicago History Museum, unless otherwise noted.
Bio By Joe Erbentraut, The Huffington Post.
GINEVRA KING PIRIE was a Lake Forest, Illinois socialite and heiress who had a two year (mostly) long-distance relationship with famed American author Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a student at Princeton University, while Ginevra was in high school at Westover during part of this time (January 1915 to July 1917).
Ginevra was the inspiration and basis for several of Fitzgerald's female characters over the years, in both his short stories, and in at least two of his novels.
The most memorable of these characters is Daisy Fay Buchanan in the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. Daisy was based entirely on Ginevra King, with one notable exception: The character Daisy hailed from Louisville, Kentucky, not Illinois. It was Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda Sayre, who hailed from the South (Montgomery, Alabama).
F. Scott Fitzgerald characters known to be based on Ginevra (The first listed was Fitzgerald's debut novel, and contained two characters, both based in part on Ginevra):
Isabelle Borgé and Rosalind Connage
in This Side Of Paradise
Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby
Judy Jones in Winter Dreams
Isabelle Borgé in Babes In The Woods
Josephine in all 5 Josephine Perry Stories
Josephine in 3 of The Basil Stories
Marjorie Harvey in Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
∼She was a rich debutante named after a da Vinci painting.
Ginevra was author F. Scott Fitzgerald's first love. She was also reportedly the woman who served as the principal inspiration (character "Daisy Buchanan") for Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."
Ginevra met a 19-year-old Fitzgerald in his hometown of St. Paul in 1915 when she was still attending the Westover boarding school and he was a student at Princeton. The two appear to have been almost immediately smitten with each other as they began to exchange a series of letters, some of which were released for the first time only 10 years ago. But, by January 1917, the letter-writing slowed and the fling was over after Ginevra's father reportedly told Fitzgerald,"Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls."
After an impassioned courting period with Fitzgerald, King announced her engagement to William Mitchell, a wealthy Chicago man.
King married Mitchell in 1918, not long after dumping Fitzgerald. She eventually divorced Mitchell, remarried and settled into an ornate Lake Forest home that was originally built for King's banker father, Charles B. King, as a summer getaway. Ms. King died in 1980 at the age of 82.
All photos provided courtesy the Chicago History Museum, unless otherwise noted.
Bio By Joe Erbentraut, The Huffington Post.
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GINEVRA KING PIRIE
NOVEMBER 30, 1898
DECEMBER 13, 1980
