Edith Cummings, Jordan Baker, and the Golden Age of Golf in Fitzgerald’s Fiction, 18 September | AllEvents

Edith Cummings, Jordan Baker, and the Golden Age of Golf in Fitzgerald’s Fiction

History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff

Highlights

Thu, 18 Sep, 2025 at 07:00 pm

509 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest, IL, United States, Illinois 60045

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Date & Location

Thu, 18 Sep, 2025 at 07:00 pm (CDT)

509 E. Deerpath, Illinois 60045

509 E Deerpath Rd, Lake Forest, IL 60045-2277, United States

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About the event

Edith Cummings, Jordan Baker, and the Golden Age of Golf in Fitzgerald’s Fiction
Sue Hoover Epstein, independent scholar, is returning to the History Center on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. to speak on the character of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby, who was based on Lake Forester Edith Cummings, winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1923. Her talk will discuss how F. Scott Fitzgerald knew and admired Cummings and her brother Dexter (a Yale golf champion) and how he immortalized them both in his fiction.

The Cummings duo were lauded nationally for their golfing prowess, honed at The Onwentsia Club. Expect to hear many anecdotes from the Golden Age of Golf, and learn how Lake Forest was central to the development of the game. Epstein's research has focused on The Big Four, the Lake Forest debutantes who fascinated Fitzgerald and provided the model for many of his most memorable female characters. Edith Cummings, Ginevra King, Courtney Letts and Peg Carry loomed large on the Society Pages a century ago, and thanks to Fitzgerald, their exploits, personalities and marital choices defined a generation of modern women.


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509 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest, IL, United States, Illinois 60045
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History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff

History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff

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Edith Cummings, Jordan Baker, and the Golden Age of Golf in Fitzgerald’s Fiction, 18 September | AllEvents
Edith Cummings, Jordan Baker, and the Golden Age of Golf in Fitzgerald’s Fiction
Thu, 18 Sep, 2025 at 07:00 pm