novel was interrupted as his wife Zelda wished to return to the Deep South since "she missed peaches and biscuits for breakfast." After an excursion to Montgomery, Alabama, the couple returned to Westport where Fitzgerald resumed work on his novel. While Fitzgerald worked on his second novel, his wife Zelda realized she was pregnant in February 1921, and the couple began planning a trip overseas to Europe. Throughout the winter and spring of 1921–22, Fitzgerald wrote and rewrote various drafts of The Beautiful and Damned. Fitzgerald modeled the spoiled characters of Anthony Patch on himself and Gloria Patch on—in his words—the chill-minded selfishness of his wife. The novel draws circumstantially upon the early years of Fitzgeralds' tempestuous marriage following the meteoric success of the author's first novel This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald divided the work in pre-publication into three major parts: "The Pleasant Absurdity of Things", "The Romantic Bitterness of Things", and "The Ironic Tragedy of Things". In the final book form, however, the novel consists of untitled "books" of three chapters each. Having digested criticisms of his debut novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought to improve upon the form and construction of his prose and to venture into a new genre of fiction altogether. Consequently, he revised The Beautiful and Damned based on editorial suggestions from his friend Edmund Wilson and his editor Max Perkins. When reviewing the manuscript, Perkins commended the conspicuous evolution of Fitzgerald's literary craftsmanship. Fitzgerald dedicated the novel to the Irish writer Shane Leslie, George Jean Nathan, and Maxwell Perkins "in appreciation of much literary help and encouragement". While finalizing the novel, Fitzgerald traveled with his wife to Europe, and his agent Harold Ober sold the serialization rights for The Beautiful and Damned to Metropolitan Magazine for $7,000. The chapters were serialized by Metropolitan from September 1921 to March 1922. Shortly before the novel's publication in book form by Charles Scribner's Sons, Zelda Fitzgerald made a sketch in which she envisioned the dust-jacket for her husband's novel. Her sketch depicted a naked flapper sitting in a cocktail glass. Ultimately, the publisher would use an illustration by William E. Hill for the dust-jacket. On March 4, 1922, the book was published by Scribner's. The publisher prepared an initial print run of approximately 20,000 copies, and The Beautiful and Damned sold well enough to warrant additional print runs reaching 50,000 copies. Critical reception With his second