Authorship and Artistry: Zelda Fitzgerald’s “A Millionaire’s Girl” and “Miss Ella”

Much has been written on Zelda Fitzgerald as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s muse and as a victim of mental illness. Her novel, Save Me the Waltz, and even her artwork have received critical attention, but little scholarship has focused on her short stories. In this essay, I reengage one of the few but first essays on her stories—W. R. Anderson’s “Rivalry and Partnership: The Short Fiction of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald” (1977)—and argue that we can trace her growth as a serious writer most apparently when juxtaposing “A Millionaire’s Girl” with “Miss Ella.” This essay provides a bio-critical reading to suggest that in the short, yet difficult, months between the publication of “A Millionaire’s Girl” and “Miss Ella,” she started to gain a voice of her own.