Audible is launching an investigative podcast series about the origins of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic character Jay Gatsby, subject of classic novel The Great Gatsby.
American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby? is led by a journalist Joe Nocera (Agatha Christie and the Dandelion Poisoner) and follows the little known story of Max Gerlach, a German immigrant, small-time crook and bootlegger who moved to America in the early 1900s in pursuit of the American Dream.
Fast forward to the 1950s when a Fitzgerald renaissance takes hold and Gerlach claimed to be the inspiration behind the infamous Jay Gatsby.
Set against the backdrop of World War I, Prohibition, and The Great Depression, the series follows Gerlach’s life and examines evidence that suggests he may have been telling the truth, beginning with a mysterious note written by Gerlach to Fitzgerald in 1923.
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