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Birth
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota, to parents Edward and Molly Fitzgerald. -
First taste
When he was 13, he saw his first piece of writing appear in print: a detective story published in the school newspaper. -
Ambitions
When he was 15, his parents sent him to the Newman School, a prestigious Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. There, he met Father Sigourney Fay, who noticed his talent and encouraged him to pursue his literary ambitions. -
University
After graduating from the Newman School, he decided to stay in New Jersey to continue his artistic development at Princeton University. Where he dedicated himself to honing his craft as a writer, writing scripts, articles, humor magazines, and stories. -
Troubles
His writing came at the expense of his course work. He was placed on academic probation, he dropped out of school to join the U.S. Army. Afraid he might die in the war with his dreams unfulfilled, in the weeks before reporting to duty, he wrote a novel called The Romantic Egotist. -
Going forward
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama. The war ended before he was deployed, upon his discharge, he moved to New York City. He hoped to launch a career in advertising lucrative enough to convince his girlfriend, Zelda, to marry him. However he quit his job after only a few months, returning to St. Paul to rewrite his novel. -
Things coming together
His first novel, This Side of Paradise, is published, a week later, he and Zelda marry in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. -
Birth of his daughter
Their only child is born, a daughter named Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald. The next month the family moved to St. Paul and lived there until June. -
The Great Gatsby
What is considered his greatest novel, The Great Gatsby, is published; he and his family settle in Paris a few weeks later. -
Zelda’s nervous breakdown
Zelda suffers her first nervous breakdown and spends much of the next year hospitalized at a clinic in Switzerland. In November he published the short story “One Trip Abroad,” about an American couple who fall apart in Europe -
The Crack-Up
The first of a 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 Zelda is committed to Highland Hospital mental asylum in Asheville, North Caroline, where she’ll live for the rest of her life. -
The last story for The Saturday Evening post
His last story, Trouble, for The Saturday Evening post, is published -
Hollywood
He moved to Hollywood after signing a six-month contract from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, hoping that he'll work his way out of debt with screenplays. Within days of his arrival he meets a movie columnist named Sheilah Graham. They begin an affair that lasts until his death. He starts work on his only credited screenplay, Three Comrades. -
Hollywood
He moved to Hollywood after signing a six-month contract from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, hoping that he'll work his way out of debt with screenplays. Within days of his arrival he meets a movie columnist named Sheilah Graham. They begin an affair that lasts until his death. He starts work on his only credited screenplay, Three Comrades. -
Fall from grace
Having lost his Metro Goldwyn Mayer contract in December 1938, he spent the year bouncing between freelance gigs with his alcoholism. In February he gets a job on a production Called Winter Carnival but is fired for drunkenness and is hospitalized. He was hospitalized again in April, he began work on his final novel The Last Tycoon, but was unable to sell the serial rights to a magazine. -
Death
He dies of a heart attack at Sheila’s Grahams Hollywood, California apartment, and is buried in Rockville, Maryland.