Overview

"When Mickey Rathbun began to investigate a rumor that her grandfather, George Gordon Moore, had been a model for Fitzgerald's iconic character Jay Gatsby, she discovered closer connections than she had ever imagined. In her remarkable, compelling, and beautifully crafted memoir, The Real Gatsby: George Gordon Moore, she examines the striking parallels between the real person and his fictional doppelganger. Beyond their hardscrabble western origins, formative sojourns in England, extravagant lifestyles fueled by suspected criminal activities, and pursuit of unattainable women, Moore and Gatsby shared a heightened appreciation for the exquisite possibilities of life, what Fitzgerald called ""romantic readiness."" These similarities were hardly coincidental; Moore played polo and partied with the social set that inspired The Great Gatsby. Tommy Hitchcock, the legendary polo player on whom Fitzgerald based Gatsy's Tom Buchanan, was Moore's close friend, business partner, and housemate. Rathbun's book is an honest exploration of her grandfather's astonishing life and legacy. With unflinching candor, she engages themes that are as relevant today as in Fitzgerald's time: our single-minded obsession with wealth and social cachet and the mirage of the American Dream."

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Reviews

"""Poignant, haunting, unflinchingly candid, Mickey Rathbun's uncovering of her grandfather's secrets puts something fascinating and original into the nation's literary bloodstream: a brand-new Gatsby. George Gordon Moore is not only the most plausible model we've yet encountered for the aspirational hero of Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, but an actual Gatsby himself-the self-made American tycoon who chases his dream from East to West, veering between nobility and scandal as he resorts to shadier and shadier means to stay afloat, even swerving across the Atlantic to woo an English Daisy named Diana Manners. He ultimately inflicts as much damage as delight when his fantastic Diamond-as-Big-as-the-Ritz life imitates the boom-to-bust arc of Fitzgerald's art."" -David Michaelis, author of Eleanor ""With The Real Gatsby, Mickey Rathbun has found the elusive joining point of history and family. That her grandfather may have been an inspiration for Fitzgerald's character is the spool around which this saga is spun. Rathbun presents a large-living man in a reckless era-her narrative has a colorful depth that hardly needs Gatsby at all."" -Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age ""Almost everyone has a mysterious or troubling forebear but not everyone can make a compelling case that their grandfather was Fitzgerald's model for the title character in The Great Gatsby."" -Madeleine Blais, author of Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble and Uphill Walkers: A Family Memoir"

"""Poignant, haunting, unflinchingly candid, Mickey Rathbun's uncovering of her grandfather's secrets puts something fascinating and original into the nation's literary bloodstream: a brand-new Gatsby. George Gordon Moore is not only the most plausible model we've yet encountered for the aspirational hero of Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, but an actual Gatsby himself-the self-made American tycoon who chases his dream from East to West, veering between nobility and scandal as he resorts to shadier and shadier means to stay afloat, even swerving across the Atlantic to woo an English Daisy named Diana Manners. He ultimately inflicts as much damage as delight when his fantastic Diamond-as-Big-as-the-Ritz life imitates the boom-to-bust arc of Fitzgerald's art."" -David Michaelis, author of Eleanor ""With The Real Gatsby, Mickey Rathbun has found the elusive joining point of history and family. That her grandfather may have been an inspiration for Fitzgerald's character is the spool around which this saga is spun. Rathbun presents a large-living man in a reckless era-her narrative has a colorful depth that hardly needs Gatsby at all."" -Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age ""Almost everyone has a mysterious or troubling forebear but not everyone can make a compelling case that their grandfather was Fitzgerald's model for the title character in The Great Gatsby."" -Madeleine Blais, author of Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble and Uphill Walkers: A Family Memoir ""With The Real Gatsby, Mickey Rathbun has found the elusive joining point of history and family. That her grandfather may have been an inspiration for Fitzgerald's character is the spool around which this saga is spun. Rathbun presents a large-living man in a reckless era-her narrative has a colorful depth that hardly needs Gatsby at all."" -Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age ""Almost everyone has a mysterious or troubling forebear but not everyone can make a compelling case that their grandfather was Fitzgerald's model for the title character in The Great Gatsby."" -Madeleine Blais, author of Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble and Uphill Walkers: A Family Memoir ""Poignant, haunting, unflinchingly candid, Mickey Rathbun's uncovering of her grandfather's secrets puts something fascinating and original into the nation's literary bloodstream: a brand-new Gatsby. George Gordon Moore is not only the most plausible model we've yet encountered for the aspirational hero of Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, but an actual Gatsby himself-the self-made American tycoon who chases his dream from East to West, veering between nobility and scandal as he resorts to shadier and shadier means to stay afloat, even swerving across the Atlantic to woo an English Daisy named Diana Manners. He ultimately inflicts as much damage as delight when his fantastic Diamond-as-Big-as-the-Ritz life imitates the boom-to-bust arc of Fitzgerald's art."" -David Michaelis, author of Eleanor"

Author Information

Mickey Rathbun practiced law in New York City in the 1980s before moving to Western Massachusetts and turning her attention to her true passion, writing. Her hundreds of features and personal essays have appeared in many publications including The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and Salon.com. For the past six years, she has been the garden columnist for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts. She lives in Amherst with her husband, writer Christopher Benfey, and their rescue mutt, Luisa.

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