2.  Born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Son of Edward Fitzgerald, an alcoholic that couldn’t keep a job, and Mary McQuillan, whose family had made a small fortune as wholesale grocers.  His first piece of writing appeared in the school newspaper.  At the Newman School, a prestigious Catholic Preparatory School, he met Father Sigourney Fay, who noticed his talent and encouraged him to write

3.  Went to Princeton University  Wrote scripts for Princeton’s famous Triangle Club musicals, articles for the humor magazine, the Princeton Tiger, and stories for the Nassau Literary Magazine  However, he was placed on academic probation and dropped out of school in 1917 to join the World War I U.S. Army.

4.  Met Zelda Sayre while commissioned as a second lieutenant outside of Montgomery, Alabama and fell in love.  Married in New York in 1920.  Had a daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald in 1921

5.  This Side of Paradise, published in 1920, turned Fitzgerald into one of the country’s most promising writers.  Supported himself financially by writing short stories for The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire  Notable stories include "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Camel's Back" and "The Last of the Belles.“  Published his second novel in 1922, The Beautiful and Damned, which was about a troubled marriage  Satire of wealth, extravagance, and ambition was common in his work.

6.  In 1924, Fitzgerald moved to France and wrote his greatest novel, The Great Gatsby, a portrayal of the Jazz Age, with critiques of materialism, love, and the American dream. It wasn’t until long after his death that the book became popular.

7.  Fitzgerald became an alcoholic with writers block  Zelda suffered from mental health issues and they moved back and forth between France and Delaware. She was treated at many hospitals and mental heath clinics.  In 1934 Fitzgerald published Tender is the Night, about an American psychiatrist  While working on another novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, he died of a heart attack in California on December 21, 1940. He was 44.

9.  http://www.biography.com/people/f-scott- fitzgerald-9296261 http://www.biography.com/people/f-scott- fitzgerald-9296261  http://www.pbs.org/kteh/amstorytellers/bios. html http://www.pbs.org/kteh/amstorytellers/bios. html  http://www.history.com/topics/f-scott- fitzgerald http://www.history.com/topics/f-scott- fitzgerald