F. Scott Fitzgerald

1
F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Author The Great Gatsby

2
Frances Scott Fitzgerald

• Born St. Paul, Minnesota, September 24. 1896
• Named after his fathers distant relative, author
  of the Star-Spangled Banner Frances Scott Key
• His mother was wealthy- her father earned his
  fortune through the grocery business
• Both parents were strict Catholics

Frances Scott Key
3
Edward Mollie Fitzgerald

• Edward (father) failed at earning a living to
  support his family
• Furniture business went bankrupt
• Fired from Proctor Gamble after 10 years in New
  York firm
• Returned to St. Paul, Minnesota
• Familys only support was Mollies (F. Scotts
  mother) inheritance money

4
Early Author

• At age 13, he published his first story in the
  school paper about a detective
• In high school, he wrote and acted in 4 plays
  produced by the Elizabethan Dramatic Club in St.
  Paul
• In college at Princeton University, he wrote 3
  plays. The plays were produced and performed, but
  he was not allowed to act due to academic
  probation

5
Army Career

• Joined the army in 1917
• because he was not going to
• to graduate from Princeton
• Second Lieutenant in the infantry
• Stationed in Montgomery, Alabama
• Feared death in WWI, so quickly wrote novel The
  Romantic Egotist
• Supposed to be sent overseas, but WWI ended
• Discharged 1919

6
Zelda Sayre

• While in Alabama, Fitzgerald fell in love
• Daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge
• Engagement broken off by Zelda due to a lack of
  confidence in Fitzgeralds ability to provide for
  her lifestyle

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The Romantic Egotist This Side of Paradise

• Book Fitzgerald wrote during his military career
• Rejected for publication twice received praise
  but told to revise
• Rewrote and renamed This Side of Paradise
• Published March 26, 1920 Fitzgerald became the
  new star of the literary world
• Zelda renewed their engagement and married him in
  less than a weeks time

8
The Saturday Evening Post

• Beginning in the Fall of 1919 Fitzgerald begins
  writing for the magazine audience
• Bernice Bobs Her Hair
• The Offshore Pirate
• Babylon Revisited
• Wrote over 160 stories
• Most of his income from the stories, not novels
• Highest payment for a story 4,000
• Salary less than 25,000 a year
• Todays market about 250,000

9
Lavish Lifestyle

• Acted and spent money like young celebrities
• Couple kept expecting to make more more money
  and overspent accordingly
• Fitzgerald gained a reputation for being a
  playboy
• Became an alcoholic
• Zelda accompanied him in his drunken and
  financial adventures
• Wrote sober it became increasingly harder for
  him to finish projects

10
Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald

• Born October 1921
• Moved back to St. Paul to raise her
• Kept a home and kept up appearances for a normal
  childhood for Scottie
• Obers (Fitzgeralds story broker) became her
  unofficial adopted family when Zelda became sick
  (Scottie was 9)
• At 14, she went to boarding school
• Fitzgerald kept in contact through mail

11
Zeldas Mental Breakdown

• During the mid 1920s Zeldas
• unconventional behavior became
• increasingly eccentric
• 1929 Zelda began training to become a
  professional dancer- damaged her health and the
  couples relationship
• In 1930 she experienced her first mental
  breakdown
• She spent over a year in a mental health clinic
  in Switzerland
• She relapsed in 1932 (admitted to Johns Hopkins
  Hospital in Baltimore) and continued to be either
  a resident or outpatient of mental health asylums
  until her death in 1948

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Themes of Fitzgeralds Writings

• Hypocrisy
• Money Greed
• American Dream
• Aspiration idealism
• Unpredictability
• Loss
• Mental Health
• The Beautiful and Damned (the life of an heir to
  a business tycoons fortune and his relationship
  with his wife)
• The Great Gatsby (downfall of a newly rich
  entrepreneur)
• Tender is the Night (examines the deterioration
  of a brilliant American psychiatrist, during his
  marriage to a wealthy mental patient)

13
Fitzgerald Hollywood (return to the screen)

• 1937- contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for
  screenwriting he made over 91,000 in 1 ½ years
  he lost his contract
• Paid off many debts, but created more by visiting
  Zelda on the East coast often
• Fell in love with Sheilah Graham, a movie
  columnist
• Began a Hollywood novel- The Love of the Last
  Tycoon (only half completed)
• He died of a heart attack in Ms. Grahams
  apartment in 1940