American short-story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his turbulent personal life and his famous novel 'The Great Gatsby. His friend H. L. Mencken wrote in a June 1934 diary entry that "the case of F. Scott Fitzgerald has become distressing. Almost overnight, it turned Fitzgerald, at the age of 24, into one of the country's most promising young writers. [135] He continued writing his third novel, which would eventually become his magnum opus The Great Gatsby. They are different from you and me. As an adult, Lanahan has read her grandfathers work extensively. Asheville, a mountain town in North Carolina . [209] As writer Budd Schulberg recalled, "my generation thought of F. Scott Fitzgerald as an age rather than a writer, and when the economic stroke of 1929 began to change the sheiks[i] and flappers into unemployed boys or underpaid girls, we consciously and a little belligerently turned our backs on Fitzgerald. [149] Fitzgerald declined a $10,000 offer for the serial rights, as it would delay the book's publication. [195] The story concerned a promising young American named Dick Diver who marries a mentally ill young woman; their marriage deteriorates while they are abroad in Europe. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. While we've appreciated the suggestions and insights, right now Seven Days is prioritizing our core mission producing high-quality, responsible local journalism over moderating online debates between readers. [415] His fourth novel Tender Is the Night was made into a 1955 CBS television episode, an eponymous 1962 film, and a BBC television miniseries in 1985. He attended the St. Paul Academy. "[140], Work on The Great Gatsby slowed while the Fitzgeralds sojourned on the French Riviera, where a marital crisis developed. [171] Zelda found condoms he had purchased before any encounter occurred, and a bitter quarrel ensued, resulting in lingering jealousy. He was married . [152] Despite this reception, Gatsby became a commercial failure compared to his previous efforts, This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922). Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edward and Mary Fitzgerald. He eagerly embraced his newly minted celebrity status and embarked on an extravagant lifestyle that earned him a reputation as a playboy and hindered his reputation as a serious literary writer. [326] Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend, wrote that Gatsby was the only flawless novel in the history of American literature. UVM Student Wins Inaugural Nonbinary Division at Boston Marathon, 3. [372][373] His later life as an expatriate in Europe and as a writer in Hollywood reinforced this lifelong sense of being an outsider. Fitzgerald began work on his last novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, in 1939. [386], Wilson attempted to convince Fitzgerald to write about America's social problems, but Fitzgerald did not believe that fiction should be used as a political instrument. There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired. They had one child, a daughter named Frances Scottie Fitzgerald, born in 1921. F. Scott Fitzgerald, born September 24, 1896, was a novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and short-story writer, mostly known for his book "The Great Gatsby," published in 1924. . [6] Edward's first cousin twice removed, Mary Surratt, was hanged in 1865 for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. "[255], Fitzgerald achieved sobriety over a year before his death, and Graham described their last year together as one of the happiest times of their relationship. "It was an age of miracles," Fitzgerald wrote, "it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.". All content In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. Need more info? [365] Although scholars posit different explanations for the continuation of class differences in the United States, there is a consensus regarding Fitzgerald's belief in its underlying permanence. Isn't Hollywood a dumpin the human sense of the word. THE story of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald has been of obsessive interest to the public for more than 70 years -- not . Although 'The Great Gatsby' was well-received when it was published, it was long after Fitzgerald's death that it was regarded as one of the greatest American novels ever written. [71], In July, Fitzgerald quit his advertising job and returned to St. The Conversation Artist: Podcaster Erica Heilman Seeks the Meaning of Life, One Interview at a Time, 2. F. Scott Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre on April 3, 1920, in New York City. In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. F. That woman was Bobbie Lanahan, an artist, animator and filmmaker, and the daughter of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgeralds only child, Scottie. The Red Cross distributed the novel to prisoners in Japanese and German POW camps. "[280], The Great Gatsby's popularity led to widespread interest in Fitzgerald himself. [75], While revising his novel, Fitzgerald took a job repairing car roofs at the Northern Pacific Shops in St. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. [260] In Graham's place, her friend Dorothy Parker attended the visitation held in the back room of an undertaker's parlor. Weve all inherited that. His second novel The Beautiful and Damned was filmed in 1922 and 2010. During this period, he became friends with writer Gertrude Stein, bookseller Sylvia Beach, novelist James Joyce, poet Ezra Pound and other members of the American expatriate community in Paris,[158] some of whom would later be identified with the Lost Generation. Fitzgerald was also named after his deceased sister, Louise Scott Fitzgerald, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth. [331] During the lengthy interludes between novels, his stories sustained him financially,[332] but he lamented that he had "to write a lot of rotten stuff that bores me and makes me depressed. [378] Much like Fitzgerald,[379] Gatsby's ancestry precludes him from the coveted status of Old Stock Americans. [1] By 1960thirty-five years after the novel's original publicationthe book was selling 100,000 copies per year. I hope it's beautiful and a foola beautiful little fool. [112] As she emerged from the anesthesia, he recorded Zelda saying, "Oh, God, goofo [sic] I'm drunk. . F. Scott Fitzgerald was a short story writer and novelist considered one of the pre-eminent authors in the history of American . Scribner's prepared an initial print run of 20,000 copies. After two years lost to alcohol and depression, in 1937 Fitzgerald attempted to revive his career as a screenwriter and freelance storywriter in Hollywood, and he achieved modest financial, if not critical, success for his efforts before his death in 1940. His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. [89] At the time of their wedding, Fitzgerald claimed neither he nor Zelda still loved each other,[87][90] and the early years of their marriage were more akin to a friendship.[88][91]. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 - December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. No one objected; on the contrary, it was pointed out that the windows were French and ideally suited for jumping, which seemed to cool his ardor.". It has been the greatest credo in my life that I would rather be an artist than a careerist. What do you want? [78] She disparaged the teenage Moran as "a breakfast food that many men identified with whatever they missed from life. "[258] Fitzgerald died of a heart attack due to occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis at 44 years old. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. [324][325] Edith Wharton lauded Gatsby as such an improvement upon Fitzgerald's previous work that it represented a "leap into the future" for American novels,[324] and T. S. Eliot believed it represented a turning point in American literature. At the time, she says, she wasnt all that interested in the project and may have given the impression that she didnt approve. Fitzgerald at his desk circa 1920. [172] In December 1926, after two unpleasant years in Europe which considerably strained their marriage, the Fitzgeralds returned to America. [178] Fitzgerald was 31 years old and past his prime, but the smitten Moran regarded him as a sophisticated, handsome, and gifted writer. [304], Nevertheless, Mencken conceded that Fitzgerald came the closest to capturing the wealthy's "idiotic pursuit of sensation, their almost incredible stupidity and triviality, their glittering swinishness". Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Afraid that he might die in World War I with his literary dreams unfulfilled, in the weeks before reporting to duty, Fitzgerald hastily wrote a novel called The Romantic Egotist. In 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in despair to his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, saying that he was a "forgotten man," due to his declining literary reputation in the wake of the failure of his third and fourth novels, The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. However by the end of the 1920s Fitzgerald descended into drinking, and Zelda had a mental breakdown. Born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, she was the youngest of the . [312] Consequently, expectations arose that Fitzgerald would significantly improve with his third work. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. Paul. [36] Fitzgerald purportedly chafed under Eisenhower's authority and disliked him intensely. [258] Lying flat on his back, he gasped and lapsed into unconsciousness. "[212], With his popularity decreased, Fitzgerald began to suffer financially and, by 1936, his book royalties amounted to $80. [19] As the semesters passed, he formed close friendships with classmates Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop, both of whom would later aid his literary career. He was also named after his deceased sister, Louise Scott, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth. [14] At 13, Fitzgerald had his first piece of fiction published in the school newspaper. Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works amid the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. At the age of 24, the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, made Fitzgerald famous. "[181] Fitzgerald's relations with Moran further exacerbated the Fitzgeralds' marital difficulties and, after merely two months in Jazz Age Hollywood, the unhappy couple departed for Delaware in March 1927. [407] Later authors Budd Schulberg and Edward Newhouse were deeply affected by it, and John O'Hara acknowledged its influence on his work. "[275], Within one year after his death, Edmund Wilson completed Fitzgerald's unfinished fifth novel The Last Tycoon using the author's extensive notes,[l][277] and he included The Great Gatsby within the edition, sparking new interest and discussion among critics. troops. During the first decade of Fitzgerald's life, his fathers job took the family back and forth between Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York. Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald (October 26, 1921 - June 18, 1986) was an American writer and journalist and the only child of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald.She worked for The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Northern Virginia Sun, and others, and was a prominent member of the Democratic Party.She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1992. [289], Remarking upon the cultural association between Fitzgerald and the flaming youth of the Jazz Age, Gertrude Stein wrote in her memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas that the author's fiction essentially created this new generation in the public's mind. F. Scott Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre on April 3, 1920. [47] Three days after Ginevra married a wealthy Chicago businessman, Fitzgerald professed his affections for Zelda in September 1918. Let me tell you about the very rich. "[410], Fitzgerald's stories and novels have been adapted into a variety of media formats. The book was inspired by his wife Zeldas struggle with mental illness. [180], Jealous of Fitzgerald and Moran, an irate Zelda set fire to her own expensive clothing in a bathtub as a self-destructive act. [238] After having a heart-attack at Schwab's Pharmacy, Fitzgerald was advised by his doctor to avoid strenuous exertion. [67], With dreams of a lucrative career in New York City dashed, Fitzgerald could not convince Zelda that he would be able to support her, and she broke off the engagement in June 1919. He was placed on academic probation, and, in 1917, he dropped out of school to join the U.S. Army. [113], After his daughter's birth, Fitzgerald returned to drafting The Beautiful and Damned. Everyone wanted to meet him. [119] During an intermission, Fitzgerald asked lead actor Ernest Truex if he planned to finish the performance. F. Scott Fitzgerald. [27] He visited Ginevra at Westover until her expulsion for flirting with a crowd of young male admirers from her dormitory window. [389][390], Fitzgerald partly justified the perceived lack of political and intellectual substance in his fiction by arguing that he was writing for a new, largely apolitical, generation "dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken. [256] On the night of December20, 1940, Fitzgerald and Graham attended the premiere of This Thing Called Love. [361] H. L. Mencken believed Fitzgerald's myopic focus upon the rich detracted from the broader relevance of his societal observations. [307][308] Whereas This Side of Paradise had featured workmanlike prose and chaotic organization, The Beautiful and Damned displayed the superior form and construction of an awakened literary consciousness. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Agea term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. [94] Publicly, their alcohol intake meant little more than napping at parties, but privately it led to bitter quarrels. [419] Other theatrical productions of Fitzgerald's life include Frank Wildhorn's 2005 musical Waiting for the Moon,[420] and a musical produced by the Japanese Takarazuka Revue.