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No second acts, perhaps, but many encores. (use of quotation by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

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From: American Journalism Review
Date: 19950301
Author:Brown, Earle Palmer

F. Scott Fitzgerald's quotation 'there are no second acts in American lives' has been used by many journalists in their articles. The quotation has appeared more than 79 times in news articles between 1993 and 1995 alone. Most of these writers have interpreted it as referring to the difficulty of reproducing earlier successes. However, Fitzgerald may have meant this line in the context of the theater to refer to transition periods. Thus, Fitzgerald may have implied that during his time life proceeded too fast to have a transitionary phase between crisis and resolution.

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