Today: Headlines from April 9, 1925

Today 100 Years Ago

On this very week in 1925, the Roaring Twenties were in full swing. Jazz poured out of speakeasies, skyscrapers clawed at urban skylines, and a post-war generation was busy rewriting social rule-books. Let’s rewind the newsreel to discover what had the world talking on April 9 ± 1 day, 1925.

1) A Jazz-Age Masterpiece Rolls off the Press

📍 New York City – April 10, 1925
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel, The Great Gatsby, arrived in American bookstores on a quiet Friday morning. Only 20,870 copies would sell during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, yet the book distilled the intoxicating glamour—and lurking emptiness—of an age that nicknamed itself “modern.”

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What Happened?

• Scribner’s printed a modest first run of 20,000 hardbacks, bound in robin-egg blue cloth and wrapped in Francis Cugat’s now-iconic dust-jacket of hypnotic eyes.
• Review copies sped by rail and mail to critics nationwide. Early responses were mixed—some praised Fitzgerald’s lyricism, others dismissed the story as “overly elaborate.”
• On the streets of Manhattan, newsstands still hawked tabloids about bootlegger raids and Hollywood divorces; Gatsby’s tragic parties felt almost ripped from the headlines.

Why It Mattered
The novel would become a time capsule of Jazz-Age ambition, excess, and disillusion. Its influence now stretches from literature syllabi to TikTok aesthetics—proof that, a century later, the green light still glows.

2025 Lens

• 📚 In an era of e-readers and AI-generated covers, Gatsby remains a print best-seller, proving some stories resist obsolescence.
• 💸 Gatsby’s anxious chase for wealth echoes today’s crypto booms and busts, reminding us that speculative bubbles rarely end with champagne toasts.
• 🏠 West Egg’s mansions conjure today’s real-estate frenzy—from Dubai’s palm-shaped islands to metaverse penthouses. The dream keeps moving; the cautionary tale stays put.

Closing Thoughts

From Fitzgerald’s typewriter to the algorithmic feeds of 2025, stories about ambition and identity still grip us. A century may separate our smartphones from Gatsby’s gold telephone, yet the question he asked—“Can we truly reinvent ourselves?”—remains refreshingly, and hauntingly, current.