FitzFirst@Four discusses the Bigelows of Saint Paul and Fitzgerald’s story “A Freeze Out”

FitzFirst@Four is a monthly discussion group, focused on the short stories of F Scott Fitzgerald. It meets at 4:00pm on the first Sunday of every month at Common Good Books. Events are free and open to the public.

This month’s guest is Dave Page, a regular contributor to the FitzFirst series. Page recently retired from serving as a writing and journalism professor at Inver Hills College. Page will present an overview of the relationship between Fitzgerald and the Bigelows, and link his recent research findings to elements of the short story “A Freeze Out.” Interested participants are encouraged, but not required, to read the short story in advance and to share their comments and ideas with the group.

We’ll be discussing the short story F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “A Freeze Out” and its connection to the Bigelow families of Saint Paul. “A Freeze Out” can be found in both The Short Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald and The Saint Paul Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald, available now at Common Good Books.

The social prominence of the Bigelows of Saint Paul probably cannot be overstated. Charles Henry Bigelow, Jr., was president of Farwell Ozmun Kirk (FOK), a wholesale hardware business, which was later known as the OK Hardware stores. Charles’ father and his uncle Frederick R. Bigelow were both presidents of St. Paul Fire and Marine, later the St. Paul Companies, and now the Travelers Companies. In the 1910s and 20s, the Bigelow families lived near the Fitzgerald family on Portland and Laurel Avenues in Saint Paul. As a teenager, F. Scott Fitzgerald developed a great friendship with the Bigelow children, particularly daughter Alida and her brother Donald.

The friendship between Alida Bigelow and F. Scott Fitzgerald is particularly worthy of attention. Fitzgerald turned to his friend Alida at both the lowest and highest points of his life. In January, 1917, after his soul-crushing breakup with debutante Ginevra King, Fitzgerald sent Alida a letter from Princeton, beginning: “I have never felt so depressed in my life as I do this afternoon.” At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, in September, 1919, Fitzgerald wrote these much quoted lines about the acceptance of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in a poem he sent to Alida:

In a house below the average
On a street above the average
In a room below the roof…
I shall write Alida Bigelow
Shall indict Alida Bigelow
As the world’s most famous gooph ….
Most beautiful, rather-too-virtuous-but-entirely-enchanting Alida:
Scribner has accepted my book …

Fitzgerald later paid Alida Bigelow the supreme compliment of naming the intelligent, athletic, beautiful female lead character Alida Rikker in “A Freeze-Out” for her.

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For more information, contact Fitzgerald in Saint Paul at info@fitzgeraldinsaintpaul.org, or visit www.fitzgeraldinsaintpaul.org. Fitzgerald in Saint Paul is dedicated to celebrating the life and literature of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the revered American author and cultural icon, in his hometown of Saint Paul.