The Long Island house where F. Scott Fitzgerald began writing “The Great Gatsby” is for sale. And it can be yours for just $3.9 million.

Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, rented the home from October 1922 until April 1924. At the time, it was relatively modest, and Fitzgerald did his writing in a room over the garage. It was other houses around the bay that are said to have inspired the fictional grand mansions of Gatsby and the Buchanans (including their dock with the green light).

The home has since been remodeled, and now boasts seven bedrooms, six-and-half baths, grand parabolic windows, a second-floor balcony, a gourmet kitchen, a maid’s room, a den and a bar in the basement.

The latter is something Fitzgerald would have appreciated.


According to legend, the Fitzgeralds threw wild parties in the house, Zillow writes, with “house rules” such as: “Visitors are requested not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by the host and hostess.”

And it wasn’t just the house on Long Island; at one point, a maid came to the house in the morning and found the Fitzgeralds passed out on the front lawn, as far as they’d gotten -- miraculously unharmed -- after driving their used Rolls Royce back from a night of drinking in Manhattan.

Of course, hazardous driving on the roads of Long Island was something Fitzgerald was able to use in “The Great Gatsby.”

Twitter: @paperhaus


MORE FROM BOOKS:

Is Facebook the place for serious essays?

Flannery O’Connor to appear on new U.S. postage stamp

You won’t believe the words Merriam-Webster dictionary just added