Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

When F Scott Fitzgerald died at the age of 44 the minister presiding at his funeral described him as a ‘no good drunken bum.’ This robust approach to the art of the graveside eulogy didn’t catch on – but perhaps the most surprising thing it shows is that, though he’s now lauded as a literary great, Fitzgerald was thought of as being no great shakes at the time of his death.

This is the man who gave us The Great Gatsby – revered Jazz Age classic in which young women waft elegantly through glittering soirées ‘like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.’

Gatsby wasn’t considered a classic at the time of its publication though, and its esteemed author died in poverty.

He’s not alone. Herman Melville, there’s another. Moby Dick is such a key text in American literature nowadays that it could be considered one of…