Making the Most of the Middle: Zelda Fitzgerald and Dawn Powell in College Humor

The brief period when Zelda Fitzgerald and Dawn Powell both published in the magazine College Humor offers a unique lens through which to view not only each author's larger body of work but also this critically neglected magazine. By placing the stories within a middlebrow context, this article charts the way these authors utilized such conventions to make pointed critiques of gender expectations as represented by the flapper. Such an approach also helps us understand the underappreciated role that middlebrow magazines played as a venue for female authors who sought to protest restrictive gender ideals in an era of unprecedented freedom.