F. Scott Fitzgerald fans across the globe are celebrating the centennial of “The Great Gatsby” this year.

From Princeton University, Fitzgerald’s alma mater, to the French Riviera, where he worked on the novel, this milestone anniversary will be marked with all kinds of “Gatsby”-themed events.

Here in the author’s birthplace, St. Paul will host parties, exhibits, performances and more — even a live reading of the entire novel at the Minnesota History Center on Thursday.

F. Scott Fitzgerald in the third-floor bedroom of his parents’ residence at 599 Summit Ave., where he wrote “This Side of Paradise.” (From the “Sight Unseen” exhibit at the George Latimer Library in downtown St. Paul)

But all this fuss over “Gatsby” would have been hard to imagine when it first landed on store shelves 100 years ago. After receiving mixed reviews from literary critics, the book sold poorly.

Fitzgerald died in 1940 believing it was a flop, said Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air program and author of “So We Read On: How ‘The Great Gatsby’ Came to Be and Why it Endures.”

“He really did think it was a failure,” Corrigan said. “The torture was he knew he had written a great book, and he wanted people to read it. … I do think it broke his heart that it wasn’t received as anything special by a lot of people.”

In St. Paul, Fitzgerald’s hometown newspapers did little to help, offering only qualified praise of his masterpiece in their 1925 reviews.

It was “the best of his novels,” but “not of the greatest importance.” It was “never dull for a moment,” but full of “stupid” characters and “very little” plot.

The book’s lukewarm reception in the local press may not be surprising given its author’s complicated relationship with St. Paul, said Mark Taylor, a Fitzgerald historian who gives walking tours of his old haunts along Summit Avenue.

“It seems like there was a reluctance on the part of St. Paul to embrace Fitzgerald during his lifetime … perhaps wanting to distance the city from this person who is known for having led kind of a fast life,” Taylor said.

‘They raised eyebrows’

Fitzgerald had made a triumphant return to the city that shaped him four years before “Gatsby” was published.

Already the acclaimed author of “This Side of Paradise,” he was working on revisions to “The Beautiful and Damned” in summer 1921 when he moved back to his hometown with his pregnant wife, Zelda.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald at Dellwood on White Bear Lake the month before their daughter, Scottie, was born. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)

The Fitzgeralds were by then national celebrities and avatars of the Roaring Twenties, famous for their glamorous, gin-soaked lifestyle in New York.

“Fitzgerald was one of the first people who was famous for being famous,” said Dave Page, a St. Paul historian, of the author’s life and career. “He and Zelda understood that they could monetize their fame.”

They became known in St. Paul for wild parties that earned them a handful of eviction notices from a series of fashionable lodgings — and perhaps the disapproval of their neighbors.

“They raised eyebrows, that’s for sure,” Page said. “St. Paul was a very conservative, Catholic town. You just didn’t do that kind of stuff. You didn’t make a big deal out of yourself. It was very Victorian, and the Fitzgeralds were post-Victorian.”

Thomas Boyd, a friend of Fitzgerald’s who was then the literary editor of the St. Paul Daily News, wrote in March 1922 that the author appeared to have “ruffled the composure of his fellow townsmen.”

After the successful release of “The Beautiful and the Damned,” Fitzgerald began to workshop the story that would become “Gatsby” that summer at a rented house in White Bear Lake, but he wouldn’t write it here.

He and Zelda had both had enough of Minnesota, and they moved back to New York with their infant daughter, Scottie, that fall. They would never return to St. Paul.

Fitzgerald carefully crafted “Gatsby” over the next couple of years, infusing his Jazz Age melodrama with artful commentary on class, wealth, ambition and the American dream.

“Fitzgerald thought ‘Gatsby’ was going to be the novel that would break all the records,” Corrigan said. “It was going to top ‘This Side of Paradise.’ It was going to raise his literary reputation even higher. … And it didn’t.”

Not-so-great ‘Gatsby?’

Critics greeted “Gatsby” with ambivalence when it was released on April 10, 1925. Many reviews praised Fitzgerald’s elegant prose but dismissed the book’s literary significance.

The first mention to appear in the St. Paul papers was an unsigned review in the Pioneer Press on April 19, which called it by “far the best of his novels.” Its praise, however, was a bit backhanded.

The dust jacket of “The Great Gatsby.” (Courtesy image)

“While the work itself is not of the greatest importance, it does mark a distinct advance in the author’s command of his medium,” the anonymous critic wrote.

The St. Paul Daily News was even less generous in its review on May 3, despite admitting that “Gatsby” was “never dull for a moment.”

“Of plot there is very little, save for some hectic love affairs that are not above reproach, the author’s aim and interest all being centered on Gatsby himself,” wrote Clifford Trembley, the paper’s books editor. “Personally I don’t think the fellow was worth so much effort.”

That same day, the Pioneer Press returned to “Gatsby,” publishing a Chicago Tribune review by H.L. Mencken that — despite praising the “charm and beauty” of Fitzgerald’s writing — called the book itself “no more than a glorified anecdote” and “obviously unimportant.”

Fitzgerald was wounded by the critical indifference to his novel — and by its lackluster sales. While Fitzgerald’s first two novels had each sold about 50,000 copies, “Gatsby” managed a meager 21,000.

When he died in 1940, Fitzgerald and his work were largely forgotten, evidenced by the many unsold copies of “Gatsby” gathering dust in his publisher’s warehouse, Corrigan said.

Fitzgerald was eulogized in the St. Paul Dispatch by his friend James Gray, the newspaper’s literary and drama critic, who seemed to sense the book’s significance.

“He wrote one novel, ‘The Great Gatsby,’ which reveals his gift at its most urbane, sensitive and imaginative,” Gray wrote. “It is one of those small masterpieces which inevitably misses tremendous popular success because its implications are more subtle than the casual public cares to disentangle from a melodramatic story.”

“Perhaps some day it will be rediscovered,” he hoped. He didn’t have to wait long.

New life for an ‘old sport’

The United States entered World War II almost exactly a year after Fitzgerald’s death — and it would help revive his masterpiece.

A consortium of booksellers and publishers decided American troops overseas would benefit from some free reading material they could carry with them into battle. Their answer was the Armed Services Editions — hundreds of titles printed on cheap paper and handed out to GIs, who devoured them in their downtime.

Melting snow beads off a statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul’s Rice park on Nov. 6, 2013. The statue was unveiled in 1996 as part of a celebration of the author’s 100th birthday. (John Doman / Pioneer Press)

Roughly 155,000 copies of “The Great Gatsby” found their way into the hands of American servicemen through the ASE series — several times more than had been sold during Fitzgerald’s lifetime.

The book’s popularity surged in post-war America, and a 1951 biography of its author by Arthur Mizener helped bring Fitzgerald and his work back into the public consciousness.

Fans of the late St. Paulite began making pilgrimages to his hometown. Ethel Cline, who lived in the Summit Avenue row house where Fitzgerald finished writing “This Side of Paradise,” told the Pioneer Press in 1958 that “she has received numerous callers curious about Fitzgerald’s days in St. Paul.”

Over the years, the city has fully embraced its association with the famous author, and “Gatsby” — his “glorified anecdote” — has become one of the most acclaimed novels of all time.

“It’s our greatest ‘great American novel’ about class and the hidden ways in which that American promise doesn’t extend equally to everyone,” Corrigan said. “Gatsby tells us the American dream is a mirage, but at the same time, we reach for it. Fitzgerald said the novel is about aspiration. And he thinks aspiration is beautiful.”

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Photo gallery: Throwback Thursday

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of “The Great Gatsby” on Thursday, a handful of F. Scott Fitzgerald enthusiasts will read the entire novel aloud at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

Published on April 10, 1925, “Gatsby” is the St. Paul native’s best-known work and widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of all time.

Scheduled to run from 1 to 7:30 p.m., the live reading is one of several events planned by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library commemorating “Gatsby’s” centennial in its author’s hometown that will “revisit the book and consider how its themes apply today,” the organization’s website says.

Upstairs in the History Center’s Gale Family Library, several Fitzgerald-related items from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society are on display.

Later on that evening, Storyline Books will host a “Gatsby”-themed cocktail party at 1881 Eating House in Union Depot. Celtic Junction in Midway will host a “Gatsby Speakeasy Dance” on Friday night, complete with a live jazz band.

The Friends’ series of “Gatsby” events will continue throughout the rest of the year and include these events:

April 15: A book club discussion of “The Great Gatsby – A Graphic Novel Adaptation” by Katherine Woodman Maynard at Urban Growler in St. Paul.

May 1 to May 31: Books from Minnesota women authors of the 1920s will be on display at George Latimer Central Library in St. Paul.

Sept. 13 to March 22, 2026: “Gatsby at 100,” an exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis.

Sept. 19 to Sept. 22: “The Last Flapper,” a one-woman show by William Luce based on the writings of Zelda Fitzgerald, performed by Monette Magrath at Landmark Center in St. Paul.

Nov. 9: “Teaching The Great Gatsby,” an online panel discussion with teachers from around the United States.

A full schedule of events can be found on the Friends website at thefriends.org/fitzgerald.

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Reports of Powassan virus, a potentially fatal tick-borne illness that can have permanent neurological effects, are increasing across the country, including in Minnesota, which had 14 confirmed cases in 2024.

Though the aggressive and quickly transmissible virus is rare, public health officials are urging precautions as tick season approaches.

“What we try to remind people is yes, it’s scary, but it is really rare,” said Elizabeth Schiffman, a Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist specializing in mosquito- and tick-transmitted diseases. “Don’t forget to do all those prevention things that we talk about that no one ever wants to do because they’re boring and not fun. Do your tick checks. Know when your risk is highest.”

Powassan virus is primarily transmitted to humans by one of Minnesota’s 13 tick species: the blacklegged tick, also known as the deer tick. Symptoms of Powassan include seizures, paralysis, speech difficulties and, in severe infections, meningitis and brain inflammation.

An estimated 10% to 15% of Powassan virus cases are fatal, and around half of infected individuals sustain long-term neurological problems such as recurring headaches and memory issues.

There are no treatments or vaccines for Powassan.

“It replicates in neurons, and it replicates in cells that are in brain cells, and so through simple destructive processes in the brain, you’re going to have downstream effects that result in these long-term cognitive impacts,” said Matthew Aliota, professor at the University of Minnesota Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. “Powassan has the capacity to invade the central nervous system, to cross the blood/brain barrier and to infect brain cells, and that can have really bad long-term consequences.”

Aliota received a $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2024 to assess the potential public risk of and build a foundational understanding of Powassan, focusing on Minnesota and New York — two of the country’s Powassan epicenters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 54 human cases across 10 states in 2024.

“This really has been an understudied virus to date, and the number of cases have been increasing over the past, say, 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Some of this is related to better recognition by clinicians, but some of it I think is just ecology as well, a true increase.”

Powassan is often compared to Lyme disease because both are spread by blacklegged ticks, but Aliota says the two are “apples to oranges.” Lyme disease is significantly more common than Powassan and is not a virus.

Undated courtesy photo, circa 2007, of the pathognomonic erythematous rash in the pattern of a bull’s-eye, referred to as erythema migrans. The rash manifested at the site of a tick bite, on this Maryland woman’s arm, signifying a case of Lyme disease. (James Gathany/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Lyme disease is spread by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacteria a tick acquires when feeding on white-footed mice. These comparisons have led some to believe — possibly incorrectly — that the white-footed mouse is also a reservoir for Powassan. It is unknown which tick host animal harbors Powassan; some ticks are also born with the virus.

“People have just assumed that that mouse is the same host for Powassan as well, but we don’t know that,” Aliota said. “That’s one of the questions that my lab is trying to answer.”

Reasons for increasing Powassan reports may include more abundant animals for ticks to prey on: white-tailed deer, a favorite host of the blacklegged tick, have larger numbers in the state than in past decades.

In addition, more people may live near deer ticks than compared to a few decades ago. As housing developments are built and expanded, more people encroach on tick habitats. Many suburbs have wooded pockets on their edges, and these forest fragments place ticks close to people.

“It kind of creates this ideal habitat for encounters between humans and this tick species,” Aliota said.

To increase awareness of Powassan, Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologists like Schiffman frequently give presentations to inform health care providers, medical associations and the public about the virus.

“So it’s about hammering home that messaging like, ‘Well, when we talk about tick-borne diseases, it’s more than just Lyme disease,’” she said. “We talk with providers, ‘Here’s how you find these rare cases, and if you have a person who you can’t figure out what they have, please loop us in at MVH, we’d love to help you sort out what might be causing that person’s illness.’”

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People who exhibit mild or no symptoms are less likely to seek testing, and for patients who are tested, the virus’ rarity may lead some doctors to overlook the possibility of Powassan. Most diagnostic labs in the state are unable to screen for Powassan, meaning doctors must send blood work to places like Mayo Clinic or the Minnesota Department of Health for detection.

“I think with the way that we capture these cases and the way we do surveillance, we’re kind of biased towards the more severe cases,” Schiffman said. “We’re probably missing some of the milder ones, just as an artifact of how that testing is done.”

That bias may extend to the age demographics of infected individuals. More than 70% of cases reported nationally within the past two decades occurred in people age 50 or older.

“We also tend to see a lot of people who are older and who have those immunosuppressive conditions in our case population that we report on because they’re also more likely to be the ones who get sicker,” Schiffman said. “If you’re sicker, you’re probably more likely to be tested. So you’re definitely biasing the data in that way.”

The Minnesota Department of Health recommends being aware of areas at high risk of tick activity, using Environmental Protection Agency-registered tick repellent (epa.gov/insect-repellents/find-repellent-right-you) and diligently checking the skin and clothing after outdoor activities.

There is a new global war raging, and the West is losing. It is not the war in Ukraine, though that is the most visible front. It is the fierce but largely unrecognized global war in the cognitive domain, where our enemies, particularly Russia and China, have gained the upper hand. And let us be crystal clear: Despite the Trump administration’s recent flip-flop, Russia and China are sworn enemies of the United States. The winner of this war will dominate the future competition for global power and influence.

Put simply, cognitive warfare is the strategic manipulation of information and redirection of perception for the purpose of waging war and achieving war goals. It is the source for understanding threats, the values worth defending, and the reason and the will to fight. Russia and China each dedicate substantial resources to cognitive warfare. Their budget allocation for cognitive warfare is estimated to be in the billions. By comparison, the West invests significantly less, other than techno-centric operations such as cybersecurity and cyber resilience.

Cognitive warfare encompasses operations that affect the way conflict is perceived. Its key premise is that wars are ultimately won or lost in the human mind. Populations will endure hardship and deprivation when they perceive mass injustice. Inferior forces will fight against impossible odds in support of strongly held beliefs. People, and armies, can undergo 180-degree changes in opinion when their perceptions change. Cognitive warfare includes misinformation and disinformation operations, influence operations and narrative operations.

Russia and China wage cognitive warfare relentlessly and with ever greater skill and effectiveness, united in their “no-limits” hatred of Western and particularly U.S. dominance, while flooding the zone with strategic narratives that position them as the “good guys.” Note China’s success at claiming the higher moral ground with its narrative proclaiming a “common destiny for all mankind,” and the win-win benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative. Or Russia’s claim to be the guardian of traditional, conservative values while demanding respect for its dominance over its neighbors.

The common thread of our enemies’ efforts in the cognitive domain is the enduring injustice of Western colonialism and the need for a diminished West in a multipolar world. These meretricious narratives play well throughout the Global South. One need only note the widening acceptance of the absurd lie that Ukraine is at fault for the unprovoked Russian invasion of its land or that NATO has been the historical aggressor. Or the growing popularity of the BRICS organization as the alternative to Western dominance.

The West has potentially powerful weapons and indeed won the great cognitive war of the 20th century when all the elements of national strength — diplomatic, informational, military and economic — were aligned in pursuit of the triumph of democracy and free markets. That was the greatest cognitive victory of our lifetimes; it brought down the Soviet empire, its satellite communist states and Marxist ideology. But today, the West is in cognitive paralysis, hobbled by bureaucratic inertia, toxic in-fighting, anachronistic legal and ethical constraints, and a crippling fear of escalation.

The willful reluctance of Western policymakers to recognize the importance of cognitive warfare carries the risk of irreversible losses in power and influence worldwide, the key factors that determine strategic outcomes in global competition. Their absence empowers and emboldens Russia and China.

Some Western nations recognize the importance of cognitive warfare and have policies, practices and even institutions to compete in the cognitive space. Sweden recently established a psychological defense agency; France created Viginum in the office of the president; and the Nordic and Baltic countries have embraced the concept of total defense. However, even these are limited primarily to defensive operations such as detection, exposure and resilience. The offensive toolbox is empty.

Sadly, the United States, though at the forefront throughout the Cold War, has lost the edge in cognitive warfare. The recent elimination of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, the reckless dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the gutting of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, and the habitual relegation of information warfare to an annex in Department of Defense war planning, which offers no military career path, combine to deprive the United States of the most potent tools of cognitive warfare. The alleged suspension of information operations aimed at Russia and growing mistrust between the United States and its European allies open wide the aperture for foreign information and influence warfare.

These are self-inflicted wounds. All that remain to exert influence and power are military threats and economic sanctions. Russia and China both know that the military threats are hollow. Both have taken the necessary steps to insulate themselves from the effects of Western economic sanctions and have effectively countered the measures on which the West has staked its security.

Only a paradigm shift can disrupt this careless march toward defeat. The notion that China and Russia are just competitors is quaint but wrong. They are enemies intent on overthrowing the Western-embraced, liberal, rules-based global order. The credulous faith that these superpowers will voluntarily settle for some form of peaceful coexistence, if only they are sufficiently propitiated with concessions, is naive and dangerous. If the West wishes to protect the values it cherishes, it must fight for them. It must seize the offensive.

Cognitive warfare is real warfare. Winning or losing matters. Absent understanding of the threat, of the values that need defending, and of the underlying reason and will to fight, the most advanced artificial intelligence will not save the day.

If the West loses the competition for cognitive dominance, neither firepower nor technology will be able to prevent its authoritarian enemies — Russia and China — from prevailing in this war.

Michael Miklaucic is a former senior fellow at National Defense University and editor-in-chief emeritus of the national and international security affairs journal PRISM. He is currently lecturer at the University of Chicago and professor of security studies at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.

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