“Description of things and atmosphere” from the notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald:

• “The island floated, a boat becalmed, upon the almost perceptible curve of the world.”
• “The first lights of the evening were springing into pale existence. The Ferris wheel, pricked out now in lights, revolved leisurely through the dusk; a few empty cars of the roller coaster rattled overhead.”
• “Farther out in the water there were other lights where a fleet of slender yachts rode the tide with slow dignity, and farther still a full ripe moon made the water bosom into a polished dancing floor.”
• “It was a cup of a lake with lily pads for dregs and a smooth surface of green cream.”
• “A region of those monotonous apartment rows that embody the true depths of the city — darkly mysterious at night, drab in the afternoon.”
• “Spring came sliding up the mountain in wedges and spear points of green.”
• “The music indoors was strange in the summer; it lay uneasily upon the pulsing heat, disturbed by the loud whir of the fans.”
• “Drawing away from the little valley, past pink pines and fresh, diamond-strewn snow.”
• “And perhaps, on the widest and shadiest of the porches there is even a hammock left over from the hammock days, stirring gently in a Victorian wind.”
• “Bundled up children were splattering in for tea as if the outdoors were tired of them and wanted to change its dress in quiet dignity.”
• “Out the window, the snow on the pine trees had gone lilac in the early dusk.”
• “The sun had gone behind Naples, leaving a sky of pigeon’s blood and gold, and as they rounded the bay and climbed slowly toward Torredell Annunziata, the Mediterranean momentarily toasted the fading splendor in pink wine.”
• “The sea was dingy grey and swept with rain. Canvas sheltered all the open portions of the promenade deck, even the ping-pong table was wet.”
• “Is there anything more soothing than the quiet whir of a lawnmower on a summer afternoon?”
• “In Spring when there was no leaf dry enough to crackle and the loudest sound was a dog barking in the next county.”
• “The deep South from the air — a mosaic of baseball diamonds set between dark little woods.”

In his 1925 story “Love in the Night,” a “limousine crawled crackling down the pebbled drive.”