[164] Fitzgerald is also the namesake of the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, home of the radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. After his death in 1940, his daughter "Scottie" sent the letters back to King where she kept them until her death. [78] One of the most serious rifts occurred when Zelda told him that their sex life had declined because he was "a fairy" and was likely having a homosexual affair with Hemingway. [34] While at a local country club, Fitzgerald met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of Alabama Supreme Court Justice Anthony D. Sayre and the "golden girl", in Fitzgerald's terms, of Montgomery society. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. [35] He later referred to this period of decline in his life as "The Crack-Up" in the short story. Not that Fitzgerald would admit that last one. Fitzgerald had two flights of stairs to climb to his apartment; Graham's was on the ground floor. Fitzgerald was instead buried at Rockville Union Cemetery. It was received so badly that Fitzgerald himself wanted to stop the play when he realized how bored the audience was, but they admirably kept going. Learn facts about F Scott Fitzgerald, his place in history, his novels, and why the Great Gatsby is still such a relevant book even 1oo years after it was written! Needless to say, they got kicked out of the hotel and later complained that they found Paris rather boring because they didn’t know anybody there. While stationed in Alabama, he fell in love with rich socialite Zelda Sayre. [138], Fitzgerald's work has inspired writers ever since he was first published. "[129], Fitzgerald died before he could complete his fifth novel. A few months before he was born his two older sisters were born. Fitzgerald was so enamored with the art that he revised portions of the novel to better integrate the artwork. When his son was two years old, the elder Fitzgerald moved his family to the East Coast after accepting a position with the large dry goods firm of Procter and Gamble, but they returned in 1908 when he lost this job. 10. [102] Nearly bankrupt, Fitzgerald spent most of 1936 and 1937 living in various hotels near Asheville. [35] In February 1932, she was hospitalized at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The original cover of The Great Gatsby was designed by Francis Cugat, who later ended up designing for Douglas Fairbanks. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short-story writer. Fitzgerald at first demanded to confront Jozan, but instead dealt with Zelda's request by locking her in their house, until she abandoned her request for divorce. Upon entering the apartment to assist Fitzgerald, Culver stated, "I'm afraid he's dead." His channels his experiences with her suicide attempt and battles with schizophrenia through the character of American expat Dick River in his novel Tender is the Night. The last time the two saw each other was on a 1939 trip to Cuba. "[144], Fitzgerald's works have been adapted into films many times. He even copied passages word-for-word from her journal, prompting her to quip “he seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.”. When Hemingway was getting his start, Fitzgerald kindly helped him out by doing some editing on his novel, As brilliant a writer as Fitzgerald was, he was a really lousy speller and may have been dyslexic. The Beautiful and the Damned was set in New York City, where he and Zelda lived between 1920-1921. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. [57] Zelda once jumped into the fountain at Union Square. [85][86][87], They then rented "Ellerslie", a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware until 1929. [59] The couple would later be seen as the epitome of the period, with Ring Lardner Jr. labelling them "the prince and princess of their generation. In the 1930s, Fitzgerald had told Hemingway of his fear of dying from "congestion of the lungs. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. For example, in 1929 Fitzgerald only received royalties of $5.10 from the American edition and just $0.34 from the English edition. For the duration of his time in the country, he stayed holed up at the Doubleday Estate in Oyster Bay, but Fitzgerald and his writer pal Ring Lardner (yes, that really was his name) got it in their heads that they really, really wanted to meet him. You've read "The Great Gatsby," haven't you? Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, Stabbed In The Back: These Real-Life Betrayals Are Straight Up Brutal, Grandiose Facts About Marie Antoinette, The Doomed Queen, The Unforgettable Story Of Wu Zetian, China's Most Ruthless Empress, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France’s Uncrowned Queen, Scandalous Facts About Catherine De Medici, The Deadly Queen Mother Of France, I’m Done: These People Quit Their Bad Jobs And Toxic Relationships In Epic Ways, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, These People Shared The Worst Moments Of Their Lives…And They’re Utterly Brutal. Fast Facts: F. Scott Fitzgerald A fifth uncompleted novel, The Last Tycoon, was published one year after his death in 1941. Of all his talents, fighting was definitely not one of them. [35] Fitzgerald's friendship with Hemingway was quite effusive, as many of Fitzgerald's relationships would prove to be. When former Princeton classmate and literary critic Edmund Wilson read a typo-ridden version of This Side of Paradise, he declared it “one of the most illiterate books of any merit ever published… full of English words misused with the most reckless abandon.” On the bright side, he did say it had merit! [35] They began a courtship, but were briefly interrupted in October when he was summoned north. [46] It launched Fitzgerald's career as a writer and provided a steady income suitable to Zelda's needs. Sat 29 Oct 2016 19.04 EDT. During his time at Princeton, Fitzgerald had a tendency to skip classes. Although she initially rejected him due to his financial situation, Zelda agreed to marry Fitzgerald after he had published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). [101], By that year, Zelda had become extremely violent and emotionally distressed, and Fitzgerald had her placed in the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Public demand had decreased so much for Fitzgerald's works that by 1936, his book royalties barely amounted to $80. Some critics have seen the book as a thinly veiled autobiographical novel recounting Fitzgerald's problems with his wife, the corrosive effects of wealth and a decadent lifestyle, his own egoism and self-confidence, and his continuing alcoholism. He often went to the movies as a child, and after WWI, he even managed to make a few bucks by selling the movie rights to a couple of his short stories. [148][149][150] In 1976, The Last Tycoon was adapted into a film starring Robert de Niro. [69], While Fitzgerald had been writing The Great Gatsby, Zelda had become infatuated with a young French aviator, Edouard S. Jazz Age author F. Scott Fitzgerald was quintessentially American. Born on September 24, 1896, in Saint Paul, Minnesota,[1] to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald was named after his second cousin thrice removed, Francis Scott Key,[2][note 1] but was always known as Scott Fitzgerald. Despite his still being married to Zelda (she was hospitalized at the time), he shacked up with her in her West Hollywood apartment where they lived for just over three years until his death. Remember? After the publication of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald turned his attentions to writing a “social novel” (a novel that highlights social problems of the time) with a matricide at the center. Like most writers, Fitzgerald based his characters on people he knew as well as real-life experiences, several of which were adaptations of his interactions with Zelda. Jozan was not aware that she had asked for a divorce. © Copyright 2021 by Factinate.com. What’s Next? 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). He managed to complete a manuscript for an unpublished novel called The Romantic Egoist which he later turned into his hit novel This Side of Paradise. Everyone wanted to meet him. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. Fitzgerald had died of a heart attack, aged just 44. Most of the book was a record of his published works and income, but another section called “Outline Chart of, Zelda’s struggles with mental illness are well-documented, and they had a major impact on Fitzgerald’s own mental and emotional state. Now regarded as one of the greatest. He met her while stationed in Camp Sheridan, Alabama during the war (she was the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Judge). He also was involved in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, which ran the Nassau Lit. Most notable among them was a relatively unknown Ernest Hemingway, whom Fitzgerald greatly admired. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edward and Mary Fitzgerald. "[5] His father, Edward Fitzgerald, was of Irish and English ancestry, and had moved to St. Paul from Maryland after the American Civil War. [64] In a letter, Zelda claimed that the audience were “so obviously bored” and that some even walked out during the second act. "[141] In letters written in the 1940s, J. D. Salinger expressed admiration of Fitzgerald's work, and his biographer Ian Hamilton wrote that Salinger even saw himself for some time as "Fitzgerald's successor". With parents like Scott and Zelda, it’s not hard to believe that their … Unfortunately, his constant need for money and one of Zelda’s breakdowns prevented him from ever finishing more than four chapters. [121][122] In 1975, Scottie successfully petitioned to have the earlier decision revisited, and her parents' remains were moved to the family plot in Saint Mary's. [38], Upon his discharge on February 14, 1919, he relocated to New York City, where he unsuccessfully begged each of the city editors of the seven newspapers for a job. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. "[58] Their social life was fueled with alcohol. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. The diary became the basis of The Book of Scandal in the Basil Lee Duke stories, with some sections even being published in Life Magazine. "[112] Edmund Wilson and Aaron Latham later suggested that Hollywood sucked Fitzgerald's creativity like a vampire. Jozan. [104] Shortly after the release of this story, Hemingway referred to Fitzgerald as "poor Scott" in his short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". [19] In 1911, Fitzgerald's parents sent him to the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey. In a letter to her daughter Scottie, Zelda wrote: “We saw ‘The Great Gatsby’ in the movies. [110] His failure in Hollywood pushed him to return to drinking, imbibing nearly 40 beers a day in 1939. It’s ROTTEN and awful and terrible and we left” (Zelda herself capitalized rotten). (Facebook/F. Zelda Fitgerald and F.Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald then went to the St. Paul Academy, but was thrown out of the school when he was aged 16 for not working hard enough. [79] She later threw herself down a flight of marble stairs at a party because Fitzgerald, engrossed in talking to Isadora Duncan, was ignoring her. In 1932, she wrote and sent to Scribner's her own fictional version of their lives in Europe, Save Me the Waltz (1932). He titled the book The Thoughtbook of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald of St. Paul Minn. U.S.A. and kept it locked in a box which he stored under his bed. That Francis Scott Key was a lawyer and a writer who is known for writing the lyrics to the “The Star Spangled Banner” during the War of 1812. In a 2008 interview, Jay McInerney claimed that "people believe the myth of Fitzgerald is—that he was seduced by this world that he wrote about, and that he ultimately couldn’t separate his life and his art. [147] The Great Gatsby has been adapted into numerous films of the same name, spanning nearly 90 years: 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000, and 2013 adaptations. [156] The last years of Fitzgerald and his affair with Sheilah Graham, was the theme of the movie Beloved Infidel (1959) based on Graham's 1958 memoir by the same name. 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). They met in summer of 1937 and she claims to have fallen immediately in love. Before finding his niche as a novelist, Fitzgerald had aspirations of being the next great American poet. Her daughter Eleanor later took those 74 typed pages along with information gathered from letters, journals, newspaper clippings and friends, and wrote a biography of her mother titled Scottie, the Daughter of…: The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith (1995). It sold well enough to warrant additional print runs reaching 50,000 copies. Poor guy! For other people with these names, see. Constantly being dragged from place to place when her parents moved, and largely under the care of nannies, Scottie was pretty much ignored by her parents. While Zelda was placed at a mental institute for her schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934). While his smoking and drinking didn’t literally kill him, but they certainly contributed to his declining health. One of Fitzgerald’s more infamous family connections was his first cousin once removed Mary Surratt. F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles', "10 Things You May Not Know About F. Scott Fitzgerald", "How 'Gatsby' Went From A Moldering Flop To A Great American Novel", "The Football Genius of F. Scott Fitzgerald", "Princeton – Weekly Bulletin 09/07/03 – Before Zelda, there was Ginevra", "Love Notes Drenched In Moonlight; Hints of Future Novels In Letters to Fitzgerald", "A Brief Life of Fitzgerald - University Libraries | University of South Carolina", "Mastering the Story Market: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Revision of "The Night before Chancellorsville, "Link to Zelda & F. Scott Fitzgerald Chronology Web Page", "F. Scott Fitzgerald Marries "The First American Flapper" 95 Years Ago Today", "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels & Stories 1920–1922 | Library of America", "Tales of the Jazz Age | collection of short works by Fitzgerald", "What the Great Gatsby Got Right about the Jazz Age", "F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby", "Why 'The Great Gatsby' is the Great American Novel", "See F. Scott Fitzgerald's Paris, in All Its Jazz Age Glory", "Chronology of the Life of Zelda Fitzgerald", "Tragic, fascinating, brilliant – life of 'wild child' Zelda Fitzgerald revisited", "F. Scott Fitzgerald Thought This Book Would Be the Best American Novel of His Time", "The Younger Generation: Its Young Novelists", "The Great Gatsby Line That Came From Fitzgerald's Life—and Inspired a Novel", "76 Years Later, Lost F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Sees The Light Of Day", "F. Scott Fitzgerald's life was a study in destructive alcoholism", "Great interviews of the 20th century: F Scott Fitzgerald interviewed by Michel Mok", "Jay McInerney: Foreword for the interview with F Scott Fitzgerald by Michel Mok", "Fitzgerald as Screenwriter: No Hollywood Ending", "Gatsby may be great, but F Scott Fitzgerald is greater", http://broadstreetonline.org/2017/06/from-our-pages-an-affair-of-youth-in-search-of-flappers-belles-and-the-legendary-fitzgeralds-by-bryant-mangum/, "Revisit Jazz Age history in Rockville at F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's grave", "Scott and Zelda: Fractious in life, but together in death in a Rockville cemetery plot", "F. Scott Fitzgerald and the American Dream", "As Big as the Ritz: The Mythology of the Fitzgeralds", "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List", "Loving 'Gatsby' All About 'Living Fitzgerald, "Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)", "The Disenchanted | News | The Harvard Crimson", "PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: Enter the "Roaring Twenties" World of Frank Wildhorn's Zelda With Lauren Kennedy", "Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100", "Z: The Beginning of Everything review – come on Zelda, Scott, where's the passion? Of all his talents, fighting was definitely not one of the lungs 129 ], Fitzgerald had flights. Definitely not one of them with divorce papers into films many times time at Princeton in 1913 in October he! Apartment ; Graham 's was on the ground floor daughter Scottie, Zelda wrote: “ saw! 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