-Born Sept. 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. - Full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald -His early life was shaped by the fact that his mother’s family is wealthy but his father was unsuccessful at business so money was always an issue. -attends prep school but doesn’t fit in -Enters Princeton University in Tries, unsuccessfully, to play for the football team. -Writes for the Princeton Tiger and begins to write and act in plays drops out of Princeton returns to Princeton -1917—is placed on academic probation. -Joins the army as a second lieutenant (WWI)

 First novel attempt, The Romantic Egoist, is rejected  Working in advertising, Fitzgerald is living with his parents and writing  Writes and submits novel This Side of Paradise. It is accepted by Scribners, and it is a huge success. -This Side of Paradise captured the hopes of success of Americans but also the fears of failure and poverty

 The Beautiful and the Damned  Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories)  The Vegetable (a play)  The Great Gatsby – becomes the defining novel of the 20’s  Tender is the Night (last finished novel) is unpopular because it is published after the start of The Great Depression and it is about people with money. People didn’t want to read about success and excess when they didn’t have enough!  His unfinished novel is The Last Tycoon about Hollywood

 First love- Falls in love with Geneva King, a wealthy young socialite, but is rejected. He is not wealthy enough.  meets and falls in love with wealthy socialite Zelda Sayre while he is stationed in Montgomery. They become engaged.  End of WWI--Fitzgerald is discharged from the army. Zelda breaks off engagement due to Fitzgerald’s lack of financial success.

 Scott returns home to work on his novels.  In 1919 This Side of Paradise is published- He marries Zelda a week later.  During the next 5-10 years, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald are at the center of Jazz Age culture, and regularly appear in gossip magazines. They were the talk of the town!  She was wild! Some would say CRAZY!  He was an alcoholic  They partied hard  He worked hard also- often locked himself away from his family to work on his writing.  They both had affairs but loved each other deeply

 In the 1920’s, while the Fitzgeralds are living in Europe, Scott is introduced to Ernest Hemingway.  Fitzgerald is already a success, Hemingway is trying to get his foot in the door.  Both move in the same circle of artistic socialites.  What follows is a volatile friendship.  Some say that Hemingway took advantage of Fitzgerald and used him to become successful.  Others say that Fitzgerald was jealous of Hemingway’s natural talent and tried to use him.  Additionally, Zelda and Ernest were extremely nasty towards one another.

1930--Suffering her first of many emotional breakdowns, Zelda is hospitalized in Paris. Later diagnosed with schizophrenia As his popularity as a novelist declines, Fitzgerald begins to work on movie scripts for MGM to work himself out of debt. He despises Hollywood, and despises himself for having to write “commercially.” As Zelda’s mental state worsens, the Fitzgeralds gradually separate, but never divorce.

1940--F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack in California. He is deeply in debt when he dies. After all his debts have been paid, Zelda and Scottie only have 35k to live on —Zelda Fitzgerald spends the next eight years in and out of mental institutions. She would often check in to a facility for a “fix” and then check out a few days later. On March 10, 1948 she checked into the hospital after a night of dancing. She took a prescribed sedative and then fell asleep. The hospital caught on fire and Zelda was one of 9 women who perished.

 The Great Gatsby was a HUGE disappointment during Fitzgerald’s life and he often considered it his downfall.  It was considered “trivial” or a “glorified anecdote.”  Literary critic H.L. Mencken wrote “This story is obviously unimportant” and “is not to be put on the same shelf with, say, This Side of Paradise. ”  Gatsby sold 21k copies, less than half of his first novel.

 It wasn’t until April 24, 1960 that The New York Times wrote “It is probably safe now to say that it is a classic of twentieth-century American fiction.”  More copies of the novel sold in 1991 than in all of Fitzgerald’s life.  The novel is now widely recognized as a vivid, honest picture of life in the 1920’s  What changed?