The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

From one of the great voices in the history of American literature, a witty and fantastical satire about aging—the inspiration numerous film and theater adaptations, including a highly acclaimed production playing at The Public Theater.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known today for his novels, but during his lifetime his fame stemmed primarily from his prolific achievements as one of America’s most gifted short story writers.

In 1860, Benjamin Button is born an old man and mysteriously begins aging backward. At the beginning of his life, he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life—he goes to war, runs a business, falls in love, has children, goes to college and prep school, and, as his mind begins to devolve, he attends kindergarten and eventually returns to the care of his nurse.

This strange and haunting story embodies the sharp social insight that has made Fitzgerald one of the great voices in American literature. Anthologized in Fitzgerald’s 1922 book Tales of the Jazz Age, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is one of his most memorable stories and has been acclaimed by generations of readers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. He attended Princeton University, joined the United States Army during World War I, and published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920. That same year he married Zelda Sayre and for the next decade the couple lived in New York, Paris, and on the Riviera. Fitzgerald’s novels include The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. He died at the age of forty-four while working on The Last Tycoon. Fitzgerald’s fiction has secured his reputation as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century.