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F. Scott Fitzgerald short story is published 66 years later

Fitzgerald's grandchildren found the story, 'Thank You for the Light,' among the author's papers.

The New Yorker rejected F. Scott Fitzgerald's story in 1936, calling it 'really too fantastic.'
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

A story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was rejected by The New Yorker in 1936 is running in the magazine this week after Fitzgerald’s grandchildren discovered it in his papers.

The story, titled “Thank You for the Light,” centers on a woman who sells corsets and who loves cigarettes but faces social disapproval for smoking. The woman, Mrs. Hansen, enters a church to smoke, not wanting to do so in public, and has her cigarette mysteriously catch on fire. The story is a page long.

At the time, staff at The New Yorker told Fitzgerald that running the story was “altogether out of the question,” according to the New York Times.

“It seems to us so curious and so unlike the kind of thing we associate with him and really too fantastic,” the editors said.

Fitzgerald had published other works, including three short stories, in the magazine previously. The story was rejected 11 years after “The Great Gatsby” was released. Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood soon after in 1937.

Check out the story here.

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