"Winter Dreams" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that first appeared in the Metropolitan Magazine in December 1922, and was collected in All The Sad Young Men in 1926. It is one of Fitzgerald's finest stories and is frequently anthologized. In the Fitzgerald canon, it is considered to be in the 'Gatsby era', as many of its themes were later expanded upon in his famous novel The Great Gatsby in 1925
Plot summary
Dexter Green is a young boy who aspires to be part of the elite. He starts out as a golf caddie at the Sherry Island Golf Club in Black Bear Lake, Minnesota. It is when he is caddying that he is first introduced to Judy Jones who likes him but she is young. Dexter works under Judy Jones' father, Mortimer Jones, at the club, and one day decides he is too old to work there, and eventually gets money to go to college. After college Dexter creates a laundry business. Soon he becomes very wealthy and successful. Dexter returns to the Sherry Island Golf Club playing rounds with the men he once caddied for. He encounters Judy Jones again on the golf course, only now she is older and amazingly beautiful. After hitting one of the men with her ball, Judy goes on playing golf. Later on in the evening Dexter takes a raft out onto the lake, and runs into Judy, who is driving a motor boat. She asks him to take over, and swims on a board behind him. After this encounter their long sexual affair begins. On and off, until Judy departs. When she goes away, however, Dexter becomes engaged to Irene Scheerer. Later, during a dance, he sees Judy, and is unable to resist her, breaking his relationship with Irene. After serving in World War I, Dexter later meets up with a friend who recalls having attended Judy Jones' wedding, and goes on to describe her husband's torrid affairs, and her loss of beauty. Because his description contrasts with Dexter's visions of Judy, Dexter's "Winter Dreams" are destroyed. This story was adapted for television and directed by John Frankenheimer as part of Playhouse 90, one of the great shows of the "Golden Age" of television. It was memorable for its social content as well as for a kissing scene of considerable length, for the time. A schematic article on that production may be found at [1] It was powerful and worthy of the positively considered story, which, in some ways, tells more than Gatsby told about climbing in America. This had the advantage of also showing the power of love/infatuation while starring a young John Cassavetes and a comely Dana Wynter, who inspired many Wynter dreams in the impressionable youth of the time.
