The 1953 Scribner’s edition of The Great Gatsby has many minor differences in wording from the first (1925) edition by the same publisher. I’ve collected some of the differences from the first fifty pages or so in the table below, to give you a sense of the changes. Italics indicate words that appear in one edition but not the other.
| # | 1925 edition | # | 1953 edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon | 5 | a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon |
| 18 | “This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor—” I began. | 15 | “This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor—” I said. |
| 27 | a transcendent effort, of ash-gray men, who move dimly | 23 | a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly |
| 28 | he turned up in popular cafés with her | 24 | he turned up in popular restaurants with her |
| 30 | she carried her flesh sensuously | 25 | she carried her surplus flesh sensuously |
| 33 | Fifth Avenue, warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon. I wouldn’t have | 28 | Fifth Avenue, so warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon that I wouldn’t have |
| 35 | When I came back they had both disappeared | 29 | When I came back they had disappeared |
| 42 | I tried to show by my expression that I expected no affection. | 35 | I tried to show by my expression that I had played no part in her past. |
| 42 | one day when he was out: ‘Oh, is that your suit? | 35 | one day when he was out.” She looked around to see who was listening. “‘Oh, is that your suit?’ |
| 44 | I wiped from his cheek the spot of dried lather | 37 | I wiped from his cheek the remains of the spot of dried lather |
| 48 | hair bobbed in strange new ways | 40 | hair shorn in strange new ways |
| 57 | “‘Weren’t you in the First Division during the war?” “Why, yes. I was in the Twenty-eighth Infantry.” “I was in the Sixteenth | 47 | “‘Weren’t you in the Third Division during the war?” “Why, yes. I was in the ninth machine-gun battalion.” “I was in the Seventh Infantry |
| 58 | the whole eternal world | 48 | the whole external world |
| 60 | above the chatter of the garden | 50 | above the echolalia of the garden |
F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940, so it seems unlikely that he participated in the publication process for the 1953 edition. Where, then, did these revisions come from?
