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Birth
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born September 24, 1896 to Edward Fitzgerald and Mary (Mollie) McQuillan. He was named after a distant relative Francis Scott Key, the author of the National Anthem. -
St. Paul Academy
After his father is let go from his sales job in New York, the family moved back to St. Paul Minnesota to live off his mother's inheritance. There, Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy, where his first writing appeared in print in the school's newspaper. -
Newman School
In 1911, Fitzgerald started attending the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New Jersey. There he was encouraged by Father Sigourney Fay to continue his writing career. Fitzgerald graduated from school in 1913. -
Princeton
Fitzgerald attended Princeton University where he scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club and writing for the Nassau Literary Magazine. Neglecting his studies, he was put on academic probation. -
Joined the U.S. Army
With Fitzgerald knowing that he was unlikely going to graduate, he enlisted in the Army. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. Believing that he was going to die in the war Fitzgerald wrote the novel "The Romantic Egoist" quickly, and sent it to a publisher. The novel was rejected, but Fitzgerald was asked to resubmit it after some revision. -
Short Stories
Beginning in 1920 and continuing throughout the rest of his career, Fitzgerald supported himself financially by writing great numbers of short stories for popular publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. Some of his most 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." -
This Side of Paradise
The novel was published in 1920 to glowing reviews and, almost overnight, turned Fitzgerald, at the age of 24, into one of the country's most promising young writers. -
Marriage
A week after the successful debut of his novel Fitzgerald marries Zelda Sayre. The woman he fell in love with at Camp Sheridan in 1918. -
Frances Scott Fitzgerald
Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald have their first child Frances Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul, Minnesota. -
The Beautiful and Damned
In 1922, Fitzgerald published his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, the story of the troubled marriage of Anthony and Gloria Patch. -
The Great Gatsby
Seeking a change of scenery to spark his creativity, in 1924, Fitzgerald moved to France, and it was there, in Valescure, that Fitzgerald wrote what would be credited as his greatest novel, The Great Gatsby. -
Breakdowns
After he completed The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's life began to unravel. Always a heavy drinker, he progressed steadily into alcoholism and suffered prolonged bouts of writer's block. His wife, also suffered from mental health issues, and the couple spent the late 1920s moving back and forth between Delaware and France. Zelda suffered another breakdown and was treated at the Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Towson, Maryland, and that same year was admitted to a mental health clinic in Switzerland. -
Tender is the Night
After years of toil, Fitzgerald finally published his fourth novel, Tender is the Night. Although Tender is the Night was a commercial failure and was initially poorly received due to its chronologically jumbled structure, it has since gained in reputation and is now considered among the great American novels. -
The Love of the Last Tycoon
In 1939, in California he begins work on another novel "The Love of the Last Tycoon". -
Death
He had completed over half the manuscript of The Love of the Last Tycoon, when he died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, at the age of 44, in Hollywood, California.
