[2][3] In a letter to Scribner editor-in-chief Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald wrote that "seven of the stories deal with young men of my generation in rather unhappy moods" to justify the title of the collection.
[4] Biographer Kenneth Eble notes that the volume's title reflects with precision the final years of Fitzgerald's youth in the late 1920s: "All the Sad Young Men captures in a phrase the feeling he had in losing the most vibrant experiences of his life before age took them away.
[6] Upon publication—and somewhat belying the notion that Fitzgerald's most famous novel had not been enthusiastically received—The New York Times wrote, "The publication of this volume of short stories might easily have been an anti-climax after the perfection and success of The Great Gatsby of last Spring.
"[8] In a letter to Scribner's editor-in-chief Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald explained that "seven of the stories deal with young men of my generation in rather unhappy moods" to justify his choice for the collections' title.
[4] Biographer John Kuehl notes that the volume's title reflects with precision the final years of Fitzgerald's youth in the late 1920s: "All the Sad Young Men captures in a phrase the feeling he had in losing the most vibrant experiences of his life before age took them away.