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F. Scott Fitzgerald is Born
F. Scott Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner” and is a distant relative. -
Fitzgerald’s First Publication
At the age of 14, F. Scott Fitzgerald appears in print for the first time, with “The Mystery of the Raymond Montage” in the student publication St. Paul Academy Now and Then. -
Fitzgerald at Princeton
Fitzgerald enters Princeton university with the class of 1917. He meets men who will remain lifelong friends and influences, including the writers Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. -
US Army Service
On academic probation and close to flunking out of Princeton, Fitzgerald takes a commission as an infantry second lieutenant in the US army and leaves school to report for duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He never graduates from Princeton. Soon aster reporting for military duty he starts his novel entitled The Romantic Egoist. -
Fitzgerald Meets Zelda Sayre
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre meet at a country club dance in Montgomery, Alabama. A month later publishers reject The Romantic Egoist, but sense promise in Fitzgerald and encourage him to revise and try again. -
Marriage to Zelda Sayre
This side of Paradise, Fitzgerald’s first novel is published. A week later, he and Zelda marry in St Patrick’s cathedral in New York. -
Flappers and Philosophers
Following the publication of his first short story collection Flappers and Philosophers, the Fitzgeralds move to an apartment on west 59th street in New York City. -
Birth of Daughter Scottie Fitzgerald
The Fitzgerald’s first and only child is born, a daughter named Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald. -
The Beautiful and The Damned
The Beautiful and the Damned is published. -
Move to Paris
The Fitzgeralds set sail for France. They spend most of the next seven years in Europe, predominantly in Paris. -
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is published. The Fitzgeralds settle in Paris. -
Zelda Fitzgerald’s Mental Breakdown
Zelda suffers her first mental breakdown and spends much of the next year hospitalized in various clinics in Switzerland. In November Fitzgerald publishes the short story “One Trip Abroad” about an American couple who fall apart in Europe. -
Return to America
The Saturday evening post publishes the stories “Babylon Revisited” and “Emotional Bankruptcy” both of which dwell on characters reflecting on the aftermath of the crash. In September, the Fitzgeralds move back to the US. -
The Crack-Up
The first of Fitzgeralds three part autobiographical essay “The Crack-up”, detailing his own mental breakdown, appears in esquire magazine. The third and final part runs in April, the same month that Zelda in committed to Highland Hospital mental asylum in Asheville, North Carolina. She lives there, on and off, for the rest of her life. -
Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack at Sheilah Graham’s Hollywood, California apartment. He is buried in Rockville, Maryland, where his father was born. -
Death of Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald dies in a fire at Hignland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.