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Who is He?
F Scott Fitzgerald was a 20th-century American short-story writer and novelist. He completed four novels and more than 150 short stories in his 44 year lifetime. However, he is best remembered for his third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925). The Great Gatsby is today widely considered “the great American novel.” and is most referenced when discussing the American Dream. -
Birth
He was born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to parents Edward and Mary (“Mollie”) McQuillan Fitzgerald. -
Upbringing
He was the only son of a unsuccessful aristocrat father. He saw himself as to continue his lineage of writers most notably Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner. It was expected of him to be a brilliant writer. -
School Life
He had a wild romantic imagination and was determined to prove it. He was unpopular in secondary school but made his footing in Princeton University and became a prominent figure in their literary department. -
Deployed for the Army
He flunked out of Princeton and decided to join the army after losing his first love. -
Love Again?
In July 1918, he met Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Judge. They fell in love. He immediately left the army to leave for New York to make it big so he could marry her. -
New Beginnings
He didn’t make it big by the way. Zelda broke off the engagement until he published a novel in spring of 1920. He married her in St. Paul, Minnesota. -
Big Break
The Side Of Paradise made Fitzgerald famous in the literary world. It opened up doors for the young couple such as being in the Saturday Evening Post and Scribners. -
Reflection
It also made Fitzgerald frightened and aware of ending up waiting for a fortune that would never come. The Beautiful and Damned which was his second novel portrayed a young gorgeous couple that degenerate overtime waiting for the young man to inherit a large fortune. -
Most Notable
The Fitzgerald’s moved to the Riviera in attempt to escape that doom and it was where in which he published his greatest and most famous novel, the Great Gatsby. It was partially based off the couple Gerald and Sara Murphy who ruled the social scene of the time and were good friends of the Fitzgerald’s. It discussed the American Dream and what it meant to the main character Jay Gatsby. -
Inevitable Doom
The next decade of the Fitzgeralds’ lives was disorderly and unhappy. Fitzgerald began to drink too much, and Zelda suffered in an onslaught of mental breakdowns. Fitzgerald writes his last novel (although commercially unsuccessful, was his most moving) based on these experiences after Zelda gets admitted into the hospital. -
New Life
Overtime after his despair over Zelda, Fitzgerald was close to becoming an incurable alcoholic. By 1937, however, he had become a scriptwriter in Hollywood, and there he met and fell in love with Sheilah Graham, a famous Hollywood gossip columnist. For the rest of his life Fitzgerald lived quietly with her. -
Death
F Scott. Fitzgerald died on December 21st, 1941 of a heart attack. He was 44. -
Legacy
The Great Gatsby's popularity led to widespread interest in Fitzgerald himself. By the 1950s, he had become a cult figure in American culture and was more widely known than at any period during his lifetime. -
Influence
As one of the leading authorial voices of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald's literary style influenced a number of contemporary and future writers and that’s what was he was remembered as especially with his most famous work “The Great Gatsby”.