F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely hailed as one of the greatest writers of our time, but little was known about how much he actually got paid for his work. That is, until now. The University of South Carolina’s Matthew Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library just posted Fitzgerald’s ledger for the world to see, giving insight into how much he was paid for The Great Gatsby, his countless short stories and his failed attempts at becoming a screenwriter.
The ledger is available here and shows some interesting factoids, just as Baz Luhrmann’s own adaptation of The Great Gatsby reaches theaters in two weeks. According to Entertainment Weekly, it shows that in 1919, he was paid $2,500 for the screen rights to the short story Head and Shoulders. He was paid $1,000 in 1922 for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a story David Fincher would later adapt in 2008.
The studio First National even paid him $3,500 for Lipstick, a screenplay that never reached the screen. In 1931, MGM paid him $3,000 for a treatment of an original idea that was never made.
Fitzgerald’s biggest payday came in 1926, when he was paid $13,500 for the rights to The Great Gatsby. That’s about $177,538.73 in today’s money, notes Time. Unfortunately, the only film version of Gatsby released while the author is now a lost film. The trailer seen below is all that exists:
The total Fitzgerald was paid is nothing compared to how much it cost for Warner Bros. to make Luhrmann’s film. According to a THR profile of the director, it cost $104.5 million to make. The film was shot in 3D and stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. It hits theaters on May 10.
image: Amazon