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F. Scott Fitzgerald Born
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the third of five children born to furniture manufacturer Edward Fitzgerald and Mary "Mollie" McQuillan, the daughter of an Irish immigrant. Scott and his sister Annabel are the only two Fitzgerald children to survive infancy. -
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 Mortgage" in the student publication St. Paul Academy Now and Then. -
US Army Service
On academic probation and close to flunking out of Princeton, Fitzgerald takes a commission as an infantry second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and leaves school to report for duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He never graduates from Princeton. Soon after reporting for military duty, he begins a novel entitled The Romantic Egoist. -
The Beatiful and Damned
The Beautiful and Damned is published. -
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is published. -
Fitzgerald and Hemingway
May 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway meet at (of course) a bar in Paris. Fitzgerald has already written to his editor at Scribners to tell him about the talented young American writer he's heard about in Paris circles. -
Zelda Fitzgerald's Nervous Breakdown
Apr 23,
Zelda suffers her first nervous 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. -
Tender is the Night
Tender is the Night is published.
Zelda suffers her third mental breakdown. -
"The Crack-Up"
The first of Fitzgerald's 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 is committed to Highland Hospital mental asylum in Asheville, North Carolina. She lives there, on and off, for the rest of her life. -
Last Story for Saturday Evening Post
Mar 6, 1937 "Trouble," Fitzgerald's last story for The Saturday Evening Post, is published. -
His Affair
Within days of his arrival in hollywood he meets a movie columnist named Sheilah Graham. They begin an affair that lasts until his death. -
the Final Novel
He begins work on his final novel The Last Tycoon in the summer, but is unable to sell the serial rights to a magazine. -
Failed Screenwriting Career
After being Fired From His MGM gig.Fitzgerald spends this year bouncing between freelance gigs in Hollywood and bouts with his alcoholism. In January he works briefly on Gone With the Wind. -
Alcoholic Fitzgerald
In February he gets a job on a production called Winter Carnival but is fired for drunkenness and is hospitalized in New York. Another bender in April requires further hospitalization. -
Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Dec 21, 1940
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
