The Vegetable

"Jerry Frost is thirty-five. He is a clerk for the railroad at $3,000 a year. He possesses no eyebrows, but nevertheless he constantly tries to knit them."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Vegetable (1923)



The Vegetable; or, From President to Postman (1923) is the only play F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote and when produced was regarded by many as a disaster. The title is derived from a quote Fitzgerald stated came from a "current magazine" as written on the title page of the work: "Any man who doesn't want to get on in the world, to make a million dollars, and maybe even park his toothbrush in the White House...-he's nothing more or less than a vegetable." This foray by Fitzgerald into playwriting is a must-read for those intrigued by one of the most prolific authors of the twentieth century.