菲茨杰拉德是当时的畅销书作家，但他希望《了不起的盖茨比》能成为传世之作。查理斯·斯克里布纳之子公司出版了该小说后，评论界有褒有贬。而且销量不佳——菲茨杰拉德在世时的总销量都少于二万四千本。菲茨杰拉德很失望，于1940年含恨而终。小说在二战时流行开来，受到前线战士的欢迎，其后更成为高中、大学文学课的必读作品。今天，《了不起的盖茨比》被公认为美国文学的经典杰作（英语：Masterpiece）。1998年，现代图书馆编辑委员会投票，评选其为最伟大的美国小说（英语：Great American Novel）和最佳英语小说的第二名[5]；随后入选2005年时代周刊百本最佳英文小说[6]。
1942年，一群出版人创办了“战时书会”（Council on Books in Wartime）。书会旨在为参加二战士兵发放图书。《了不起的盖茨比》也在其中。小说在士兵中大受欢迎，根据《周六晚邮报》的评论，小说和“海报女郎有一拼”。[83]，共有155,000本《盖茨比》送出海外，发放到战士们手中，[84]这最终导致了小说的出名和畅销。[85]
Karolides, Nicholas J.; Bald, Margaret; Sova, Dawn B. 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature Second. Checkmark Books. 2011: 499. ISBN 978-0-8160-8232-2. Rather than a celebration of such decadence, the novel functions as a cautionary tale in which an unhappy fate is inevitable for the poor and striving individual, and the rich are allowed to continue without penalty their careless treatment of others' lives.
Gross, Dalton. Understanding the Great Gatsby: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. 1998: 167.
McCullen, Bonnie Shannon. This Tremendous Detail: The Oxford Stone in the House of Gatsby. Assadi, Jamal; Freedman, William (编). A Distant Drummer: Foreign Perspectives on F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Peter Lang. 2007. ISBN 978-0820488516.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Bruccoli, Matthew J. , 编. The Great Gatsby. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 1991: 184 [2013-07-06]. ISBN 9780521402309. （原始内容存档于2014-01-02）. This name combines two automobile makes: the sporty Jordan and the conservative Baker electric. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Mizener, Arthur. Gatsby, 35 Years Later. The New York Times. 1960-04-24 [2013-07-29]. （原始内容存档于2018-01-31）. He had begun to plan the novel in June, 1923, saying to Maxwell Perkins, 'I want to write something new - something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.' But that summer and fall was devoted to the production of his play, 'The Vegetable.' （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Curnutt, Kirk. A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Oxford University Press. 2004: 58 [2013-10-11]. ISBN 0195153030. The failure of The Vegetable in the fall of 1923 caused Fitzgerald, who was by then in considerable debt, to shut himself in a stuffy room over a garage in Great Neck, New York, and write himself out of the red by turning out ten short stories for the magazine market.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Turnbull, Andrew , 编. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1963: 189. 3. 'Winter Dreams' (a sort of first draft of the Gatsby idea from Metropolitan 1923)
West, James L. W., III. Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cover Design by Dennis M. Arnold. Cambridge University Press. 2000: xi [2013-07-27]. ISBN 0-521-89047-0. （原始内容存档于2020-02-22）. He produces 18,000 words; most of this material is later discarded, but he salvages the short story "Absolution," published in June 1924. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Flanagan, Thomas. Fitzgerald's 'Radiant World'. The New York Review of Books. 2000-12-21 [2013-05-24]. （原始内容存档于2015-09-09）. He may have been remembering Fitzgerald's words in that April letter: So in my new novel I'm thrown directly on purely creative work—not trashy imaginings as in my stories but the sustained imagination of a sincere yet radiant world. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Perkins, Maxwell Evarts. Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph; Baughman, Judith S. , 编. The Sons of Maxwell Perkins: Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Their Editor. Univ. of South Carolina Press. 2004: 27–30. ISBN 9781570035487.
Fitzerald, F. Scott. F. Scott Fitzgerald's ledger. Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. University of South Carolina. [2013-04-29]. （原始内容存档于2016-06-04）. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Scribner, Charles, III. Celestial Eyes: From Metamorphosis to Masterpiece(PDF). Princeton University Library Chronicle. Winter 1992, 53 (2): 140–155 [2013-07-27]. （原始内容(PDF)存档于2013-11-06）. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）（originally published as a brochure on 24 October 1991 to celebrate the Cambridge Edition of The Great Gatsby）
Scribner, Charles, III. Celestial Eyes: From Metamorphosis to Masterpiece(PDF). Princeton University Library Chronicle. Winter 1992, 53 (2): 140–155 [2013-07-27]. （原始内容(PDF)存档于2013-11-06）. We are left then with the enticing possibility that Fitzgerald's arresting image was originally prompted by Cugat's fantastic apparitions over the valley of ashes; in other words, that the author derived his inventive metamorphosis from a recurrent theme of Cugat's trial jackets, one which the artist himself was to reinterpret and transform through subsequent drafts. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）（originally published as a brochure on 24 October 1991 to celebrate the Cambridge Edition of The Great Gatsby）
Anderson, Kurt. American Icons: The Great Gatsby. Studio 360. 2010-11-25. 14:26 [2013-05-22]. （原始内容存档于2013年10月13日）. [Donald Skemer（introduced 12:59）speaking] He went through many many titles, uh, including Under the Red, White, and Blue and Trimalchio and Gold-hatted Gatsby ... [James West（introduced at 12:11）speaking] The High Bouncing Lover. And, uh, he in the end didn't think that The Great Gatsby was a very good title, was dissatisfied with it. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Gatsby; Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires; Trimalchio; Trimalchio in West Egg; On the Road to West Egg; Under the Red, White, and Blue; Gold-Hatted Gatsby; The High-Bouncing Lover。
Vanderbilt, Arthur T. The Making of a Bestseller: From Author to Reader. McFarland. 1999: 96 [2013-07-27]. ISBN 0786406631. （原始内容存档于2014-09-26）. A week later, in his next letter, he was floundering: 'I have not decided to stick to the title I put on the book, Trimalchio in West Egg. The only other titles that seem to fit it are Trimalchio and On the Road to West Egg. I had two others, Gold-hatted Gatsby and The High-bouncing Lover, but they seemed too slight.' （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Hill, W. Speed; Burns, Edward M.; Shillingsburg, Peter L. Text: An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies14. University of Michigan Press. 2002 [2014-04-15]. ISBN 0472112724. （原始内容存档于2014-09-26）. ..., because in early November he wrote Perkins that "I have now decided to stick to the title I put on the book. Trimalchio in West Egg. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott; Perkins, Maxwell. Kuehl, John; Bryer, Jackson R. , 编. Dear Scott/Dear Max: the Fitzgerald-Perkins correspondence. Macmillan Publishing Company. 1971: 87. When Ring Lardner came in the other day I told him about your novel and he instantly balked at the title. 'No one could pronounce it,' he said; so probably your change is wise on other than typographical counts.
Lipton, Gabrielle. Where Is Jay Gatsby's Mansion?. slate.com. The Slate Group, a Division of the Washington Post Company. [2013-05-06]. （原始内容存档于2021-01-11）. However, nearing the time of publication, Fitzgerald, who despised the title The Great Gatsby and toiled for months to think of something else, wrote to Perkins that he had finally found one: Under the Red, White, and Blue. Unfortunately, it was too late to change. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Churchwell, Sarah. What makes The Great Gatsby great?. The Guardian. 2013-05-03 [2013-10-11]. （原始内容存档于2020-09-14）. At the last minute, he had asked his editor if they could change the new novel's title to Under the Red, White and Blue, but it was too late. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
West, James L. W., III. What Baz Luhrmann Asked Me About The Great Gatsby. The Huffington Post. 2013-04-10 [2013-07-27]. （原始内容存档于2017-10-24）. Luhrmann was also interested in Trimalchio, the early version of The Great Gatsby that I published in 2000 as a volume in the Cambridge Edition. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Alter, Alexandra. A Darker, More Ruthless Gatsby. The Wall Street Journal. 2013-04-19 [2013-07-11]. （原始内容存档于2013-10-02）. Gatsby comes across as more confident and aggressive in 'Trimalchio' during a confrontation with romantic rival Tom Buchanan at the Plaza Hotel, challenging Tom's assertion that Gatsby and Daisy's affair is 'a harmless little flirtation.' （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Mizener, Arthur. Gatsby, 35 Years Later. The New York Times. 1960-04-24 [2013-05-12]. （原始内容存档于2018-01-31）. Writers like John O'Hara were showing its influence and younger men like Edward Newhouse and Budd Schulberg, who would presently be deeply affected by it, were discovering it. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
Cole, John Y. (编). Books in Action: the Armed Services Editions. Washington: Library of Congress. 1984: 28 [2013-05-22]. ISBN 0844404667. （原始内容存档于2020-10-19）. One hundred fifty-five thousand ASE copies of The Great Gatsby were distributed-as against the twenty-five thousand copies of the novel printed by Scribners between 1925 and 1942. （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
The spelling "Wolfshiem" appears throughout Fitzgerald's original manuscript, while "Wolfsheim" was introduced by an editor（Edmund Wilson）in the second edition[20] and appears in later Scribner's editions.[21]
The original edition used the anatomically incorrect word "retinas", while some later editions have used the word "irises".
相关出版
Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph（ed.）, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0786709960
Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald 2nd rev., Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2002, ISBN 1570034559.
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