F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald arrived in the world on the 24th of September 1896. He was born into a middle-class Catholic family in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His father Edward had moved from Maryland to open a wicker-furniture manufacturing business after the Civil War. The business failed just one year after his son's birth. The family then relocated to Buffalo, New York. There his father worked as a salesman for Procter & Gamble. Young Francis spent his first decade moving between Buffalo and Syracuse. He attended two Catholic schools on Buffalo's West Side before returning to Saint Paul in 1908. At age thirteen he published his first piece of fiction in a school newspaper. His parents sent him to the Newman School in Hackensack, New Jersey. Father Sigourney Fay recognized his literary potential there. He encouraged the boy to become a writer. In 1913 Fitzgerald enrolled at Princeton University. He became one of the few Catholics in the student body. While at Princeton he formed close friendships with Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. These men would later aid his literary career.
During his sophomore year an eighteen-year-old Fitzgerald returned home for Christmas break. He met sixteen-year-old Chicago debutante Ginevra King. She became the first girl he ever loved. Their romantic relationship spanned several years. Her upper-class family belittled his courtship because of his lower-class status compared to her other wealthy suitors. Her imperious father Charles Garfield King told a young Fitzgerald that poor boys should not think of marrying rich girls. Rejected by Ginevra as an unsuitable match a suicidal Fitzgerald enlisted in the United States Army amid World War I. He received a commission as a second lieutenant. He hoped to die in battle so his unpublished novel might become a great success in the wake of his death. While awaiting deployment he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth under Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower. He chafed under Eisenhower's authority and disliked him intensely. Hoping to have a novel published before his anticipated death he hastily wrote a 120,000-word manuscript entitled The Romantic Egotist in three months. Scribner's rejected it although the impressed reviewer Max Perkins praised his writing and encouraged further revisions.
In June 1918 Fitzgerald was garrisoned with the 45th and 67th Infantry Regiments at Camp Sheridan near Montgomery Alabama. A lonely Fitzgerald began dating various young women on the rebound from Ginevra King. At a country club he met seventeen-year-old Zelda Sayre. She was a Southern belle and the affluent granddaughter of a Confederate senator. Her extended family owned the first White House of the Confederacy. A romance soon blossomed between them. Three days after Ginevra married a wealthy Chicago businessman in September 1918 Fitzgerald professed his affections for Zelda. They engaged in what he later described as sexual recklessness. By December 1918 they had consummated their relationship. Although he did not initially intend to marry her the couple gradually viewed themselves as informally engaged. Zelda declined to marry him until he proved financially successful. Upon his discharge on the 14th of February 1919 he moved to New York City where he unsuccessfully begged editors for jobs. He wrote advertising copy to sustain himself while seeking a breakthrough as an author of fiction. Rejected over 120 times he sold only one story Babes in the Woods and received a pittance of thirty dollars.
Unable to earn a successful living Fitzgerald publicly threatened to jump to his death from a window ledge of the Yale Club. In July he quit his advertising job and returned to St. Paul. He lived on the top floor of his parents' home at 599 Summit Avenue. He decided to make one last attempt to become a novelist. Abstaining from alcohol and parties he worked day and night to revise The Romantic Egotist as This Side of Paradise. One evening in the fall of 1919 after returning from work repairing train car roofs the postman rang and delivered a telegram from Scribner's announcing acceptance. An ecstatic Fitzgerald ran down the streets of St. Paul and flagged down random automobiles to share the news. His debut novel appeared in bookstores on the 26th of March 1920. It became an instant success selling approximately 40,000 copies in the first year. Within months it became a cultural sensation in the United States. F. Scott Fitzgerald became a household name. Critics such as H. L. Mencken hailed the work as the best American novel of the year. Magazines now accepted his previously rejected stories. The Saturday Evening Post published his story Bernice Bobs Her Hair with his name on its May 1920 cover.
Living in luxury at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City the newlywed couple became national celebrities. At the hotel Scott did handstands in the lobby while Zelda slid down the banisters. After several weeks the hotel asked them to leave for disturbing other guests. They relocated two blocks to the Commodore Hotel where they spent half an hour spinning in the revolving door. Writer Dorothy Parker first encountered the couple riding on the roof of a taxi. She recalled their youth was striking and everyone wanted to meet him. Publicly their alcohol intake meant little more than napping at parties but privately it led to bitter quarrels. As their quarrels worsened the couple accused each other of marital infidelities. In July 1938 Fitzgerald wrote to his daughter that he decided to marry her mother even though he knew she was spoiled. He remarked that their marriage lacked closeness which they never achieved in the workaday world. On the 26th of October 1921 Zelda gave birth to their only child Frances Scott Scottie Fitzgerald. As she emerged from anesthesia she recorded saying Oh God goofo I'm drunk. Mark Twain. Isn't she smart, she has the hiccups.
In May 1924 Fitzgerald and his family moved abroad to Europe. He continued writing his third novel which would eventually become The Great Gatsby. Initially titled Trimalchio the plot followed the rise of a parvenu who seeks wealth to win the woman he loves. For source material he drew heavily on his experiences on Long Island and once again on his lifelong obsession with Ginevra King. Work slowed while the Fitzgeralds sojourned on the French Riviera where a marital crisis developed. Zelda became infatuated with a French naval aviator named Edouard Jozan. She spent afternoons swimming at the beach and evenings dancing at casinos with him. After six weeks Zelda asked for a divorce. Before any confrontation could occur Jozan left the Riviera and the couple never saw him again. Soon after Zelda overdosed on sleeping pills. The couple never spoke of the incident but it led to a permanent breach in their marriage. On the 1st of December 1924 Fitzgerald was in a drunken brawl that ended in a Rome police station. There he punched an officer and was severely beaten by others. Upon its release on the 10th of April 1925 the novel received generally favorable reviews from contemporary literary critics.
Despite this reception Gatsby became a commercial failure compared to his previous efforts This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. By the end of the year the book had sold fewer than 23,000 copies. For the rest of his life The Great Gatsby experienced tepid sales. It would take decades for the novel to gain its present acclaim. Hemingway later recalled that during this early period of their relationship Fitzgerald became his most loyal friend. In contrast to his friendship with Scott Hemingway disliked Zelda and described her as insane in his memoir A Moveable Feast. He claimed that Zelda preferred her husband to write lucrative short stories as opposed to novels in order to support her accustomed lifestyle. She wanted him to work too much for her and not enough for his dream. To supplement their income Fitzgerald often wrote stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post Collier's Weekly and Esquire. He would first write his stories in an authentic manner then rewrite them to add plot twists which increased their salability as magazine stories. This whoring as Hemingway called these sales emerged as a sore point in their friendship.
Fitzgerald's dire financial straits compelled him to accept a lucrative contract as a screenwriter with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937. Despite earning his highest annual income up to that point he spent the bulk of his income on Zelda's psychiatric treatment and his daughter Scottie's school expenses. During the next two years he rented a cheap room at the Garden of Allah bungalow on Sunset Boulevard. A lonely Fitzgerald began a relationship with nationally syndicated gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. After having a heart attack at Schwab's Pharmacy he was advised by his doctor to avoid strenuous exertion. He had to climb two flights of stairs to his apartment while Graham lived on the ground floor. Consequently he moved in with Graham who lived on North Hayworth Avenue one block east of his apartment. On the night of the 20th of December 1940 Fitzgerald and Graham attended the premiere of This Thing Called Love. As the couple left the Pantages Theatre a sober Fitzgerald experienced a dizzy spell and had difficulty walking to his vehicle. The following day he jumped from his armchair grab the mantelpiece and collapsed on the floor without uttering a sound. Lying flat on his back he gasped and lapsed into unconsciousness. He died of a heart attack due to occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis at forty-four years old.
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Common questions
When was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald born and where did he grow up?
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald arrived in the world on the 24th of September 1896. He was born into a middle-class Catholic family in Saint Paul, Minnesota before his family relocated to Buffalo, New York.
Who was the first girl F. Scott Fitzgerald ever loved and how did their relationship end?
Ginevra King became the first girl F. Scott Fitzgerald ever loved during his sophomore year at Princeton University. Her upper-class family belittled his courtship because of his lower-class status and she married a wealthy Chicago businessman in September 1918.
What novel made F. Scott Fitzgerald a household name and when was it published?
This Side of Paradise appeared in bookstores on the 26th of March 1920 and became an instant success selling approximately 40,000 copies in the first year. The work received critical acclaim from H. L. Mencken who hailed it as the best American novel of the year.
Why did F. Scott Fitzgerald move to Europe with Zelda in May 1924?
Fitzgerald and his family moved abroad to Europe in May 1924 so he could continue writing his third novel which would eventually become The Great Gatsby. They sojourned on the French Riviera where a marital crisis developed involving a French naval aviator named Edouard Jozan.
How did F. Scott Fitzgerald die and what was the cause of death?
F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack due to occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis at forty-four years old on the 21st of December 1940. He collapsed after experiencing a dizzy spell following the premiere of This Thing Called Love at the Pantages Theatre.