'Lost' stories of St. Paul writer F. Scott Fitzgerald to be published next year

It seems impossible, doesn't it, that F. Scott Fitzgerald, who died in 1940, might still have surprises out there. But he does. A collection of his "lost" stories will be published in April 2017 by his longtime publisher, Scribner in New York.

Folks at Scribner would not comment today ("At this time we're not able to provide additional comment," his publicist told me) but the information is in its online catalog.

"I'd Die For You" might sound like a Prince song, but it is the title story of the collection, which is being edited by Anne Margaret Daniel. Daniel, who has taught at the New School in New York, has degrees in American History and in English from Harvard University and has written extensively about Fitzgerald.

Some of the stories in the collection were accepted for publication but never printed; others were never sold, possibly because of the subject matter or style. The catalog copy reads:"You will experience Fitzgerald writing about controversial topics, depicting young men and women who actually spoke and thought more as young men and women did, without censorship. Rather than permit changes and sanitizing by his contemporary editors, Fitzgerald preferred to let his work remain unpublished, even at a time when he was in great need of money and review attention."

The title story comes from Fitzgerald's stays in North Carolina, where his wife, Zelda, was living in an institution.

Fitzgerald, author of "The Great Gatsby," was born in St. Paul and attended St. Paul Academy before heading off to Princeton. He and his wife, Zelda, lived at various addresses around Summit Avenue, including in the Commodore Hotel, before moving away in the 1920s.