"The Offshore Pirate"
Short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
May 29, 1920 cover of the
Saturday Evening Post
Text available at Wikisource
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Short story
Publication
Published inSaturday Evening Post
Publication typePeriodical
PublisherCurtis Publishing Company
Media typePrint (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication dateMay 29, 1920[1]

"The Offshore Pirate" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920.[1] It is one of eight short stories included in Fitzgerald's first published collection, Flappers and Philosophers.[2] The story was first published in the May 29, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post and illustrated by Leslie L. Benson.[1] The story was Fitzgerald's third appearance in the magazine that month. It demonstrates his rapid development as a versatile fiction writer. It is the first story that develops Fitzgerald's recurrent plot idea of a heroine won by her lover's performance of an extraordinary deed.

Plot summary

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The story is about Ardita Farnam, she is on a trip to Florida. Her boat is eventually captured by pirates, she falls in love with their captain. The story had originally ended with the weak explanation that it was all Ardita's dream. Fitzgerald rewrote the conclusion to emphasize the reality of the story: "The last line takes Lorimer [the editor of the Post] at his word. It is one of the best lines I've ever written."[3]

Publication history

The story was first published in the May 29, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, his third short story appearance in the magazine that month.[1] The story was republished in the short story collection Flappers and Philosophers.[3]

Adaptations

The story was adapted to film as The Off-Shore Pirate in 1921, which starred Viola Dana as Ardita.[4]

In 2010 an operatic version by Joel Weiss premiered at Christopher Street Opera in New York City.[5]

References

Citations

Works cited

  • Fitzgerald, F. Scott (May 29, 1920). "The Offshore Pirate". Saturday Evening Post. Vol. 192, no. 48. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Curtis Publishing Company. Retrieved December 29, 2021 – via HathiTrust.
  • Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1998) [1989]. Bruccoli, Matthew J. (ed.). The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Scribner's. ISBN 0-684-84250-5 – via Internet Archive.
  • Mizener, Arthur (1951) [1949]. The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Boston, Massachusetts: Riverside Press – via Internet Archive.
  • Turnbull, Andrew (1962) [1954]. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. LCCN 62-9315 – via Internet Archive.
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