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Birthdate
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents were Edward and Molly Fitzgerald. -
Princeton Tiger humor magazine
Fitzgerald was a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, but neglected his academic studies for his literacy training in the magazine. -
Joins the military
Due to his failure as an academic student, Fitzgerald was put on probation, which motivated him to join the Army. -
His first novel
Shortly after joining the Army, he wrote his first novel, “The Romantic Egotist”. The novel was rejected by Charles Scribners Sons. -
Meets his wife
In June 1918, Fitzgerald would be assigned to Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayer, daughter to an Alabama Court Judge. -
Discharged from Army / broken engagement
Fitzgerald was discharged by the Army in 1919, and went to New York City to seek fortune to marry Zelda, but she broke the engagement because she was unwilling to live off his small salary. -
Rewrote his novel “This Side of Paradise”
He quit his job at New York in July and moved back to St. Paul and rewrote his novel which now follows the life of Amory Blaine. The novel was accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins -
Commencing his career
In late 1919, Fitzgerald officially commenced his career as a writer of stories for the mass circulation magazines, such as The Saturday Post, which would become his best story market. -
Gets married
After the publishing of his novel, Fitzgerald would marry Zelda Sayer at New York in 1920. They would move there and Fitzgerald started writing his second novel. -
Birth of his child
Sayer got pregnant in 1921, which allowed the couple to move back to St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Francis Scott Fitzgerald in October 1921. -
Fitzgerald’s move to Great Neck Island
The Fitzgerald’s moves back to New York City to be near Broadway because Fitzgerald wrote a play called “The Vegetable”. The play failed and he wrote out of his debt with short stories. -
The move to France
The Fitzgerald’s moved away, this time to France, in the spring of 1924. This was the location where “The Great Gatsby” was written. Fitzgerald revised the story in Rome between 1924-1925. The sales of the novel were disappointing. They moved back to America in 1926. -
Sayer starts ballet
Zelda Sayer started ballet training in the hopes of becoming a professional dancer. The family moved back to Paris in 1929 where her intense practice affected her health. -
Sayer’s health declines
The Fitzgerald’s moves back to America in 1931, and Sayer relapsed in 1932, and went to a hospital in Boston. -
Fitzgerald completes his fourth novel
His fourth novel, “Tender Is The Night”, was published in 1934, and it examines the deterioration of the marriage between an American psychologist and a wealthy mental patient. It closely mirrored the relationship between Sayer and Fitzgerald. -
The “crack-up years”
In 1936 and 1937, Fitzgerald had major alcoholism issues and had inability to write commercial stories. After their stay in Baltimore, Fitzgerald could not manage a home for his daughter, and she was sent to a boarding school at age 14. -
Move to Hollywood
In the summer of 1937, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood to work with MGM as a screenwriter until 1938 when he began work as a freelance script writer for Esquire. -
Death
Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21st, 1940, while working on his fifth novel “The Love of the Last Tycoon”.