The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the story of a child born in Baltimore in 1860 who has the appearance of a 70-year-old man. His family attempts to raise him in the usual manner but find that the condition creates conflicts. At kindergarten he does not have the energy to play with the other children and is withdrawn when he constantly falls asleep.  Enrolled in Yale at age 18, he is sent home when officials think he is a 50-year-old nutcase.  By then the family has realized he is aging backwards.  He joins the family business at age 20. He meets and marries a younger woman who has a thing for older men and thinks he is his father’s brother.  His condition is never revealed to her, and after her beauty fades and she becomes a nag, in 1898 he enlists in the army to serve in the Spanish-American War and rises to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1910, now an apparent 20-year-old, he enrolls at Harvard and becomes a star football player, only to weaken and struggle with his studies as he matriculates. Returning home, he passes through the moody teenage years into childhood, eventually attending kindergarten with his grandson.  Before too long his memory fades and things fade to darkness.  The story was published in Collier’s Magazine in May, 1922 and then published in Tales of the Jazz Age.  A perennial favorite, it was made in a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt in 2008.