His private life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost as celebrated as his novels. [366][382], Although many contemporary critics and literary peers regarded Fitzgerald as possessing "the best narrative gift of the century. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). 00:12. Scott Fitzgerald in "Echoes of the Jazz Age" (1931)[92], Living in luxury at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City,[93] the newlywed couple became national celebrities, as much for their wild behavior as for the success of Fitzgerald's novel. July 30, 2012. [119] The bored audience walked out during the second act. [289] Although his peers eventually hailed him as possessing "the best narrative gift of the century," this narrative gift was not perceived as immediately evident in his earliest writings. 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. [190] They returned to America in September 1931. "It's a funny thing about coming home. [346] "No generation of Americans has had a chronicler so persuasive and unmaudlin" as Fitzgerald, Van Allen wrote in 1934, and no author was so identified with the generation recorded. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless. [266] When Zelda died in a fire at the Highland Hospital in 1948, she was buried next to him in Rockville Cemetery. He had not yet completed his fifth novel, The Last Tycoon. By F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was an author, lawyer, and poet from Maryland, United States. [105] He described the era as racing "along under its own power, served by great filling stations full of money. [258] Lying flat on his back, he gasped and lapsed into unconsciousness. [236], Soon after, a lonely Fitzgerald began a relationship with nationally syndicated gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. [378] Much like Fitzgerald,[379] Gatsby's ancestry precludes him from the coveted status of Old Stock Americans. [153] By the end of the year, the book had sold fewer than 23,000 copies. In practical terms this meant that he had to support himself by writing short stories for popular magazines in order to get sufficient income, according to him, to write decent books. [289][360], This preoccupation with the idle lives of America's leisure class in Fitzgerald's fiction attracted criticism. [261] When Fitzgerald's poorly embalmed corpse arrived in Bethesda, Maryland, only thirty people attended his funeral. He is best known for his novel "The Great Gatsby" (1925), considered a masterpiece. [337], Commenting upon this tendency in Fitzgerald's short stories, Dos Passos remarked that "everybody who has put pen to paper during the last twenty years has been daily plagued by the difficulty of deciding whether he's to do 'good' writing that will satisfy his conscience or 'cheap' writing that will satisfy his pocketbook. A great deal of Fitzgerald's own life was made a hell by this sort of schizophrenia."[338]. [60] Several of Fitzgerald's friends opposed the match, as they deemed Zelda ill-suited for him. "[331], Realizing that slick magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire were more likely to publish stories that pandered to young love and featured saccharine dnouements, Fitzgerald became adept at tailoring his short fiction to the vicissitudes of commercial tastes. [50] Dispatched back to the base near Montgomery to await discharge, he renewed his pursuit of Zelda. Ironically, they finally get it, when there is nothing of them left worth preserving. [81], Fitzgerald's new fame enabled him to earn much higher rates for his short stories,[82] and Zelda resumed their engagement as Fitzgerald could now pay for her accustomed lifestyle. into a supernatural mystery revolving around the Howton family and their belief that one of their relatives has risen from the grave.Ever practical, Clara is determined to prove . [323], The realization that Fitzgerald had improved as a novelist to point that Gatsby was a masterwork was immediately evident to certain members of the literary world. [278] This renewed interest led The New York Times editorialist Arthur Mizener to proclaim the novel a masterwork of American literature. [175] Fitzgerald later rewrote Rosemary Hoytone of the central characters in Tender is the Nightto mirror Moran. [232][233] Despite earning his highest annual income up to that point ($29,757.87, equivalent to $560,922 in 2021),[232] Fitzgerald spent the bulk of his income on Zelda's psychiatric treatment and his daughter Scottie's school expenses. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in full Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, (born September 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.died December 21, 1940, Hollywood, California), American short-story writer and novelist famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). [185] That winter, Zelda's behavior grew increasingly erratic and violent. [297] He discarded the stodgy narrative technique of most novels and instead unspooled the plot in the form of textual fragments, letters, and poetry intermingled together. "[329], In contrast to the discernible progression in literary quality and artistic maturity represented by his novels,[289] Fitzgerald's 164 short stories displayed the opposite tendency and attracted significant criticism. F. Scott Fitzgerald's fiction presents not only the magic of the Jazz Age but also its immorality, materialism, and degradation of the human spirit. Then I found I needed liquor too. Corrections? [305], For his sophomore effort, Fitzgerald discarded the trappings of collegiate bildungsromans and crafted an "ironical-pessimistic" [sic] novel in the style of Thomas Hardy's oeuvre. 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. [113], After his daughter's birth, Fitzgerald returned to drafting The Beautiful and Damned. [405], Gatsby remains Fitzgerald's most influential literary work as an author. In this novel, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich . His parents were Mollie (McQuillan) and Edward Fitzgerald. [224] The article damaged Fitzgerald's reputation and prompted him to attempt suicide after reading it. [70] Unable to earn a successful living, Fitzgerald publicly threatened to jump to his death from a window ledge of the Yale Club,[d][72] and he carried a revolver daily while contemplating suicide. [111] On October 26, 1921, Zelda gave birth to their daughter and only child Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald. It is the story of a psychiatrist who marries one of his patients, who, as she slowly recovers, exhausts his vitality until he is, in Fitzgeralds words, un homme puis (a man used up). Everyone wanted to meet him. ", Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald in eBook form, Catalog of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Personal Library, American Writers: A Journey Through History, F. Scott Fitzgerald in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia, F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles', The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F._Scott_Fitzgerald&oldid=1150318875, 20th-century American short story writers, United States Army personnel of World War I, Wikipedia pending changes protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 April 2023, at 13:05. The Fitzgeralds went to live in Europe, and became notorious for their free-spending . . "[244] As Graham had read none of his works, Fitzgerald attempted to buy her a set of his novels. [245] The realization that he was largely forgotten as an author further depressed him. [122] When not writing, Fitzgerald and his wife continued to socialize and drink at Long Island parties. 3. [104] At the peak of his commercial success and cultural salience, Fitzgerald recalled traveling in a taxi one afternoon in New York City and weeping when he realized that he would never be as happy again. [280] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the society organized an online reading of This Side of Paradise to mark its centenary. [230] He saw Zelda for the last time on a 1939 trip to Cuba. [289] Summarizing Fitzgerald's artistic journey from apprentice novelist to magisterial author, Burke Van Allen observed that no other American novelist had shown such "a constantly growing mastery of his equipment, and a regularly increasing sensitivity to the esthetic values in life. [n][343], With his debut novel, Fitzgerald became the first writer to turn the national spotlight upon this generation. [203] Its structure threw off many critics who felt Fitzgerald had not lived up to their expectations. [193] In his private diary, Mencken noted Zelda "went insane in Paris a year or so ago, and is still plainly more or less off her base. [178] Fitzgerald was 31 years old and past his prime, but the smitten Moran regarded him as a sophisticated, handsome, and gifted writer. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was . [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. Fitzgerald uses vivid imagery and metaphors to provide a visual picture of his characters and settings and incorporate deeper meaning beyond . She, plus various relatives, museums, Yale University and collectors own the dolls included in the book. He was named after Francis Scott Key. [344][345] Due to this thematic focus, his works became a sensation among college students, and the press depicted him as the standard-bearer for "youth in revolt". [403] The lovers are reunited only after Fitzgerald has attained enough money to take her away from her adulterous husband. [27] He visited Ginevra at Westover until her expulsion for flirting with a crowd of young male admirers from her dormitory window. "[337] Echoing Hemingway's critique that Fitzgerald ruined his short stories by rewriting them to appease magazine readers,[167] Rosenfeld noted that Fitzgerald debased his gift as a storyteller by transforming his tales into social romances with inevitably happy endings. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. 1. [108], As their quarrels worsened, the couple accused each other of marital infidelities. I would as soon be as anonymous as Rimbaud if I could feel that I had accomplished that purpose. [120] When Truex replied in the affirmative, Fitzgerald fled to the nearest bar. In 1929, the Fitzgeralds spent their last summer on the Riviera. Exactly how Gatsby made his fortune is not clear but it is clear that he is or was involved in some illegal business. [309], Although critics deemed The Beautiful and Damned to be less ground-breaking than its predecessor,[310][311] many recognized that the vast improvement in literary form and construction between his first and second novels augured great prospects for Fitzgerald's future. As a Princeton undergraduate, Fitzgerald talked books with friends over meals at the Peacock Inn, a 16-room boutique hotel and restaurant a stone's throw . F. Scott Fitzgerald was named after a famous ancestorFrancis Scott Key. [226] Nearly bankrupt, Fitzgerald spent most of 1936 and 1937 living in cheap hotels near Asheville. [e][163][164] "I always felt a story in the [Saturday Evening] Post was tops", Zelda later recalled, "But Scott couldn't stand to write them. F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed there in the summers of 1935 and 1936. [110] After their eviction from the Commodore Hotel in May 1920, the couple spent the summer in a cottage in Westport, Connecticut, near Long Island Sound. Famous poet / F Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edward and Mollie McQuillan Fitzgerald. `` [ 338 ] the Fitzgeralds spent their last summer on the Riviera has attained enough to! Of This Side of Paradise to mark its centenary out during the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple accused other! 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