A terrific new essay in The American Scholar analyzes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tax returns and is a startling reminder of how much the average American’s relationship with the IRS has changed since the days of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald, in his most prolific writing years, was among the top 1 percent of American earners, yet paid only about 5 percent of his income in taxes – and kept the other 95.  Only 7 percent of Americans even filed tax returns, and they were pretty much on the honor system when it came to reporting their income; with no W-2s, the federal government didn’t have a good way of checking up on us until WWII.   

Yet Fitzgerald had lean years as well as bountiful ones, and he rarely lived a life free from financial worry. He was, the tax returns show, intimately acquainted with one of the contemporary US’s most pressing problems: In 1930-1931, half of his income went to his wife’s medical care.

On November 10, a MassINC panel will examine the lives of today’s 20-and-30 something artists — though not necessarily their tax returns. The last Real Talk of the year, “Art Works: A Portrait of the Artist in a Starving Economy,” begins at 6:30 at Ned Devine’s.