This is the first in a series about writers I admire and who have given me great pleasure over the years. I begin with F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of "The Great Gatsby", "The Last Tycoon", "The Beautiful and Damned", "Tender is The Night and other works, and who paved the way for J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye with his first novel "This Side of Paradise" and his stories on "Basil", an awkward and introspective adolescent who foreshadows Salinger's Holden Caulfield.