2. The Early Years
• Born Francis Scott Key
Fitzgerald on September
24, 1896
Upper-middle class Irish
•
Catholic family
Attended Nardin Academy
•
in Buffalo, NY from around
1903-1908
Attended St. Paul Academy
•
from 1908-1911. Here he
published his first story
After graduation attended
•
Newman School—a prep
school in Hackensack, NJ
3. The College Years
• Entered Princeton in
1913
• Wrote for scripts and
lyrics for The Princeton
Triangle Club, and
articles for The Princeton
Tiger and Nassau
Literary Magazine
• Dropped out and joined
the US Army in 1917
4. Soldier Days
• Commissioned as a Second
Lieutenant in the Infantry
• Convinced he would die, he
quickly wrote his first novel,
The Romantic Egoist
• Assigned to Camp Sheridan
in Alabama, where he met
Zelda Sayre.
• The War ended before he
was shipped overseas
5. Boy Meets Girl
• Scott and Zelda began an
intense romance in 1918
• Scott went to New York
to “make his fortune” so
they could be married…
Zelda was unwilling to
wait or live on his small
salary, so she broke their
engagement in 1919
• Heartbroken, he quit his
job and moved back to
St. Paul to write
6. This Side of Paradise
• In St. Paul, he reworked
his first novel, The
Romantic Egoist into
This Side of Paradise—
the story of
quintessential “lost
generation” youth
Armory Blaine
• The novel was accepted
by Scribners and would
be published early in
1920
7. Early Success
• Between the acceptance
and publication of This
Side of Paradise, he
wrote short stories for
magazines
• This Side of Paradise
published March 26,
1920…rocketing Scott to
instant fame
• He and Zelda Sayre were
married a week later
8. The Roaring Twenties
• Zelda and Scott were
celebrities, known for their
extravagant lifestyle
• Their first and only child,
Frances Scott (“Scottie”)
was born in October 1921
• His second novel, The
Beautiful and the Damned
was published in 1922
• Scott regularly went into
debt and continued to write
short stories to keep up with
their lifestyle
9. Europe
• In 1924, the Fitzgeralds
moved to France and
traveled Europe, where
he wrote The Great
Gatsby
• Became part of the circle
of literary expatriates in
Paris
• The Great Gatsby was
published in 1925 to
relatively poor sales
10. Things Fall Apart
• The family returned to
America in late 1926 - Scott
had considerable trouble
with his fourth novel
• Zelda began to exhibit
strange behavior in 1929,
and suffered a
schizophrenic breakdown in
Europe 1930. Scott wrote
short stories to pay the bills
for her treatment
• They returned to America
late in 1931, but in 1932,
Zelda relapsed and was
checked into Johns Hopkins
hospital
11. The Crack Up
• Tender is the Night was
published in 1934. It was a
commercial failure
• Fitzgerald called this period
of his life “The Crack Up”
By 1936, he was having
health problems and deep
in debt. He couldn’t sell
stories and went to
Hollywood alone to find
work
• He received little acclaim,
but he did make enough
money to get out of debt
12. The End
• Scott fell in love with
columnist Sheila Graham
in 1937; they remained quot;I want to write something
together until his death new -- something
• Paid the bills writing extraordinary and
scripts and short stories beautiful and simple &
for Esquire intricately patterned.quot;
• Died halfway through his
final novel, The Last from a letter to his editor in July 1922
Tycoon – on December
21, 1940. He was sure he
was a failure and would
go unremembered.
13. A New Beginning
• F. Scott Fitzgerald fell into
obscurity through the 40’s
and early 50’s
• The Great Gatsby was
republished in 1953, and
gained wider readership
and acceptance
• In the 1960s, a Fitzgerald
“revival” began—scholars
began studying his works in
earnest again
• Scott is now considered one
of the preeminent authors
of 20th century American
literature
14. The Great Gatsby
quot;SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT, BORNE
BACK CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST.
