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Local Historian: 'Great Gatsby' Has Hackensack Ties

Cecilia Levine
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From left: Historic New Bridge Landing Commission officers Mary Donohue, Jim Bellis, Senator Loretta Weinberg, Kevin Wright, Chairman Mike Trepicchio and Governor Jon Corizine. From left: Historic New Bridge Landing Commission officers Mary Donohue, Jim Bellis, Senator Loretta Weinberg, Kevin Wright, Chairman Mike Trepicchio and Governor Jon Corizine.
From left: Historic New Bridge Landing Commission officers Mary Donohue, Jim Bellis, Senator Loretta Weinberg, Kevin Wright, Chairman Mike Trepicchio and Governor Jon Corizine. Photo Credit: Bergen County Historical Society
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, former Hackensack student. "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, former Hackensack student.
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, former Hackensack student. Photo Credit: psu.edu

HACKENSACK, N.J. — A local historian is confirming that parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” were inspired by the author’s real-life experiences in Hackensack, northjersey.com reports.

Kevin Wright, a former Bergen County Historical Society president from River Edge said Jay Gatsby — the protagonist who tries to win back the rich girl who broke his heart — is based on what happened to Fitzgerald when he was a student at Essex Street’s now-defunct The Newman School, in 1911, according to the report.

"It was certainly the Gilded Age place to be," Wright told northjersey.com. "If you think visually of the [county] courthouse they built in 1912 – this million-dollar marble palace – that courthouse was a symbol of that era in Hackensack."

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