AUTHOR STUDY F SCOTT FITZGERALD Author of Winter

AUTHOR STUDY: F. SCOTT FITZGERALD Author of Winter Dreams

EARLY LIFE -Born Sept. 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. -Full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald -His early life was shaped by the fact that his mother’s family is wealthy but his father was unsuccessful at business so money was always an issue. -attends prep school but doesn’t fit in -Enters Princeton University in 1913. Tries, unsuccessfully, to play for the football team. -Writes for the Princeton Tiger and begins to write and act in plays. -1915 --drops out of Princeton -1916 --returns to Princeton 1917—is placed on academic probation. -Joins the army as a second lieutenant (WWI)

EARLY WRITING First novel attempt, The Romantic Egoist, is rejected 1919 --Working in advertising, Fitzgerald is living with his parents and writing 1919 --Writes and submits novel This Side of Paradise. It is accepted by Scribners, and it is a huge success. -This Side of Paradise captured the hopes of success of Americans but also the fears of failure and poverty

WRITING CAREER 1922 --The Beautiful and the Damned 1922 --Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories) 1923 --The Vegetable (a play) 1925 --The Great Gatsby – the defining novel of the 20’s 1934 --Tender is the Night (last finished novel) is unpopular because it is published after the start of The Great Depression and it is about people with money. People didn’t want to read about success and excess when they didn’t have enough! His unfinished novel is The Last Tycoon about Hollywood

LOVE LIFE First love-Falls in love with Geneva King, a wealthy young socialite but is rejected. He is not wealthy enough. 1918 --meets and falls in love with wealthy socialite Zelda Sayre. They become engaged. 1919 --End of WWI--Fitzgerald is discharged from the army. Zelda breaks off engagement due to Fitzgerald’s lack of financial success. Married Zelda after publication for first novel During the next 5 -10 years, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald are at the center of Jazz Age culture, and regularly appear in gossip magazines. They were the talk of the town! She was wild! Some would say CRAZY! He was an alcoholic They partied hard He worked hard also They both had affairs but loved each other deeply

TROUBLED TIMES AHEAD • • • 1930 --Suffering her first of many emotional breakdowns, Zelda is hospitalized in Paris. Later diagnosed with schizophrenia. 1932 --As his popularity as a novelist declines, Fitzgerald begins to work on movie scripts for MGM to work himself out of debt. He despises Hollywood, and despises himself for having to write “commercially. ” 1932 -1940 --As Zelda’s mental state worsens, the Fitzgerald's gradually separate. 1940 --F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack. 1940 - 1948—Zelda Fitzgerald spends next eight years in and out of institutions and dies in a fire at Highland Hospital in Ashland, NC in 1948.