F. Scott Fitzgerald's handwritten records released online

PanARMENIAN.Net - Author F. Scott Fitzgerald's handwritten records of his life and career have been made available to fans and scholars after being put online, BBC News said.

The Great Gatsby author kept records of his publications, income and key events in a ledger, which has been put online by the University of South Carolina.

They show he made $2,000 from The Great Gatsby when it was published in 1925.

But income from the book increased, with a payment of $16,666 for film rights made the following year.

The records have been made available to coincide with the latest big-screen version of the book - a film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio is released in May and is opening Cannes Film Festival.

Park Bucker, an associate English professor at the university, told the Associated Press news agency that the ledger "may be a unique artefact among American authors".

"This is going to be an amazing thing for students to pore over and dip into," he said. "He created his own database. We do it on computers now, but he did it for himself."