"So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to be and Why it Endures" by PBS Fresh Air book reviewer Maureen Corrigan is a delightful book. Ms. Corrigan teaches a class on "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald at George Washington University in Washington, D. C. and presents programs on the book for The Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts promotion on classic books around the country. From this latest book of hers we read about her absolute passion for the greatest novel in American Literature, and she does take passion to a whole new level. She takes her research into obscure rare book and special collections in various libraries around the country to research why "The Great Gatsby" continues to be the great American novel even though at the first printing it was a flop, selling a measly 23,000 copies for Fitzgerald and leaving a mass of remainder copies at Scribner's. Her question is how it has remained one of the top novels read in high school English classes around the country and stays on some of the syllabi of various colleges in the United states. The book was published in 1926, and one accounting of the poor readership was the onslaught of the great depression in 1929 that left little taste for the flamboyant lifestyle presented in the Great Gatsby, a life of booze, bootlegging and marital bed swapping. Fitzgerald was known for his wild drinking and bizarre behavior in the 20's. His novel came out when he was just 26 years old himself, living the good life that many people could not relate to in the ensuing years. One thing Ms. Corrigan uncovered was that after his early death in 1940, Fitzgerald had his handful of literary critics who felt that his effort was to be applauded and kept the American people from forgetting his name. She also uncovered the effort during the war to replicate great novels for the American servicemen in paperback to accompany them into battle and prison of war camps. The government issued copies were called Armed Services Collections, a total of 1322 titles that were printed in small paperback form, "nearly 123 million books were distributed to U.S. troops overseas." p.230 If you love "The Great Gatsby" then you'd love to read how it has remained in publication for many years, with several movies being made for good measure.