Last weekend I did a ghost tour in downtown Asheville and I saw the place where Zelda Fitzgerald died. Now, this was a surreal experience for me since she is one of my favorite women and one of my favorite writers. She only got to write one novel before she died, "Save Me The Waltz". Being a woman writing in the 1920's happened, but it was a rare thing and Zelda wasn't the type of person to have her fire snuffed out.
Sadly, every time you hear Zelda's name you hear it attached to her husbands and how his accomplishments far outshined hers. Well, I'm not going to say that here. Zelda shined in her own way and it's a tragedy that every time you hear her work it is always attached to the name of a man.
She was such a strong and fearless woman for her time and is what I aspire to be like as a writer. A quote of hers that has always stood out to me goes, "She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring." Zelda Fitzgerald was always unapologetically herself even when society said she shouldn't be.
Even though Zelda Fitzgerald died a tragic death, I will always remember her as a strong and independent woman that did everything she could to keep being herself even in a time when a woman like her wasn't accepted.
