In 1922, Fitzgerald wrote a short story called "Winter Dreams," which formed the basis for his most celebrated novel. Other than the novel's title, however, every other detail was true. Fitzgerald did meet his Maker with every reason to believe The Great Gatsby would vanish into obscurity. What Fitzgerald couldn't know is that during World War II, paperback copies of the book (among many others) were handed out free to U.S. soldiers, who lapped it up by the hundreds of thousands. It has since sold more than 25 million copies, and is considered among the greatest of all American novels. Perhaps you caught the recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie? (I did not. Was it good?)

Read Christian Carvajal's full feature on The Great Gatsby in the Music & Culture section.

THE GREAT GATSBY, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Feb. 8, Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma, $15-$22, 253.272.2281