Written between 1939 and 1940, when Francis Scott Fitzgerald was working for Universal Studios, ‘The Pat Hobby Stories’ is a fascinating study in self-satire that brings to life the Hollywood years of the author.
The seventeen
Pat Hobby stories were first published in
Esquire magazine and present a bitterly humorous portrait of a once-successful writer who becomes a forgotten hack on a Hollywood lot. ‘This was not art’ Pat Hobby often said, ‘this was an industry’ where whom ‘you sat with at lunch was more important than what you dictated in your office.’
Pat Hobby is a down-and-out screenwriter trying to break back into show business, but having better luck getting into bars.