Absolution

"Absolution" is a short story by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was included in his 1926 collection All the Sad Young Men. Publication "Absolution" was originally published in The American Mercury in June 1924. The story would later be published in Fitzgerald's third short story collection All the Sad Young Men in 1926. Background Fitzgerald began writing "Absolution" in June 1923. In a letter to Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald stated that it was originally intended to be the prologue of his later novel The Great Gatsby, but that it "interrupted with the neatness of the plan". In 1934, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to a fan that the story was intended to show Gatsby's early life, but was cut to preserve his "sense of mystery".