Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LONDON, Jan 14, 2007 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The biographer of a Welsh lightweight champion who knew F. Scott Fitzgerald says he believes the title character in "The Great Gatsby" was based on the boxer.
Andrew Gallimore, author of "Occupation Prizefighter: The Freddie Welsh Story," has found an odd link between Welsh and Jay Gatsby, The Times of London reported. Not long before Fitzgerald submitted the manuscript to his publisher, Welsh was involved in a car crash in New Jersey, injuring a woman named Myrtle Wilson.
In the novel, Gatsby's old flame Daisy Buchanan is driving his car when she hits and kills a woman named Myrtle Wilson.
Welsh and Gatsby were both self-made men who changed their names.
Matthew Bruccoli, a scholar who has written extensively about Fitzgerald, told the Times he believes Gatsby is mostly a composite of two other men.
"Gatsby is 80 per cent Fitzgerald and 20 per cent other sources," he said. "The Welsh thing is interesting, but far from conclusive."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2007 by United Press International
