F. Scott Fitzgerald

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F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
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Early Biography

• Sept 24,1896 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald born
  in St. Paul, MN
• His parents were Mary McQuillan, the daughter of
  Irish immigrants, and Edward Fitzgerald, a
  salesman. Both were Catholic.
• Scott attended the St. Paul Academy, then the
  Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New
  Jersey.

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Scott Zelda Fitzgerald

• On academic probation, Fitzgerald joined the army
  as a 2nd lieutenant in 1917.
• June 1918 While on assignment in Montgomery,
  AL, he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, daughter of
  an Alabama Supreme Court judge.
• She broke off their engagement in 1919 because
  she was unwilling to live on Scotts small salary.

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Literary Career Beginnings

• In June 1919 Fitzgerald returned to St. Paul, MN
  to rewrite his novel, This Side of Paradise.
• In the fall of that year, he began writing
  stories in mass-circulation magazines.
• He wrote many stories for the Saturday Evening
  Post, describing the free-thinking flappers of
  the 1920s.

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Overnight Fame

• March 26, 1920 This Side of Paradise is
  published, making the 24 year-old Fitzgerald
  famous almost overnight.
• One week later, he marries Zelda Sayre in New
  York.

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Extravagant Living

• Scott Zelda begin to live as young celebrities,
  socializing and drinking heavily.
• They take their first trip to Europe in 1921.
• October 1921 Their first and only child,
  Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald is born.

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Early Stumblings

• Fall, 1922 The young family moves to Great
  Neck, NY, expecting to earn a lot of money from
  Scotts play, The Vegetable.
• 1923 The play bombs, and Scott has to write
  short stories to get out of debt.
• Scotts drinking increases. He and Zelda fight
  often.

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Gatsby is Born

• Spring 1924 The Fitzgeralds go to France.
• Summer 1924 Scott starts writing The Great
  Gatsby. Winter 1924-25 The Fitzgeralds go to
  Rome where Scott revises Gatsby.
• April 1925. The Great Gatsby is published.
  Critical reviews are positive, but sales remain
  low.

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Fitzgerald and the Expatriates

• During the mid 1920s in Paris, Fitzgerald
  becomes part of the group of expatriate American
  writers which included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude
  Stein, and Ezra Pound.

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Further Estrangement

• During the 1920s, Scott and Zeldas relationship
  continues to be strained due to his drinking and
  her mental instability. They live in Paris, the
  Riviera, and a mansion near Wilmington, DE.
• Even though Fitzgerald earns about 4,000 per
  story (equal to about 40,000 today), he and
  Zelda continue to run into debt.

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1930s

• The Fitzgeralds rent a house in Montgomery, AL
  in 1931. Scott makes an unsuccessful trip to
  Hollywood Zelda suffers a mental breakdown in
  1932 and is hospitalized.
• 1936-37 Scott drinks, gets into more debt, and
  lives in hotels near Asheville, NC. Zelda enters
  a nearby hospital.

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The Last Years

• Summer 1937 Fitzgerald goes to Hollywood with a
  screenwriting contract earning 1,000/ week.
• Despite earning 91,000 from MGM, he is unable to
  save any money.
• 1938 He falls in love with Sheilah Graham, a
  movie columnist.
• Dec 21, 1940 Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack
  in Grahams apartment.
• 1948 Zelda dies in a fire at Highland Hospital.

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Fitzgeralds Death
On December 21, 1940 -- the Winter Solstice --
the author F. Scott Fitzgerald jolted to his feet
from a green armchair, grasped hold of a marble
mantlepiece, and fell down dead of a massive
heart attack. He was forty-four years old. His
woman companion of three-and-a half years ran
into the hallway and began knocking frantically
on doors of their small Hollywood apartment
building on Laurel Avenue, just south of Sunset
Boulevard, crying desperately for help. She
refused to accept that Scott was dead, even later
when the ambulance came, and a fire engine also,
and a fireman stood over the body and shook his
head. The name of the woman was Sheilah Graham,
Fitzgerald's last heroine -- a young, pretty
Hollywood newspaper columnist. --Robert
Westbrook, son of Sheilah Graham
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Fitzgeralds Legacy

• Although Fitzgeralds drinking gave him a
  reputation as an irresponsible writer, he was a
  painstaking reviser.
• While he endured a lot of criticism just after
  his death, his reputation grew in the 1960s.
• Today, he is considered one of the great American
  novelists, and The Great Gatsby is considered his
  masterpiece.

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Final Resting Place

• After his initial burial in Hollywood Cemetery,
  Fitzgerald remains were moved to Saint Mary's
  Church Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.

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Enduring Associations

• Fitzgerald has become identified with the
  extravagant living of the Jazz Age
• It was an age of miracles, it was an age
  of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an
  age of satire.
• --F. Scott Fitzgerald
• He felt that aspiration and idealism defined
  America and its people.
• His writing style is known for being clear,
  lyrical, and witty.

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