1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Man & The Myth

2. Early Life Born in St. Paul in 1896.
Fitzgerald always conscious of class differences.
Mother’s family: Irish, fairly well-to-do
Descendant of Francis Scott Key
Father: failed businessman and salesman

3. Schooling Catholic boarding school in NJ (1911-13)
Entered Princeton (1915); involved in campus literary magazine and wrote scripts for campus musical productions
Was always acutely conscious of the class differences between himself and other Princeton students
Not a great student

4. Military and Courtship
1917: received commission in the U.S. Army (2nd Lt. in the infantry)
At bases in KS and KY he worked on a novel, “The Romantic Egoist”—rejected twice by Scribner’s
1918: moved to Camp Sheridan in Montgomery; met and fell in love with Zelda Sayre

5. The daughter of an AL Supreme Court judge: a debutante and great beauty
Initially rebuffed Fitz’s advances ($$?), but then changed her mind and they became engaged
War ended before Fitz could go overseas; he goes to NYC to work in advertising to make money to marry Z
She calls off the engagement
Zelda

6. After Zelda’s rejection
Fitzgerald quit his job, moved back to Minnesota where he spent the next several months revising the novel that would be published as This Side of Paradise
The novel published in March 1920: instant best-seller and fame for Fitzgerald; Zelda marries him 8 days later.
At the same time, he begins his life-long association with The Saturday Evening Post and becomes perhaps the best-paid writer of his generation (mostly from short stories)

7. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Coins the term “Jazz Age” and he and Zelda become the embodiment of the excesses of the 1920s
Floods the Biltmore Hotel, lights cigars with money, displays $500 bills in his shirt pocket
1921: working on his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned; they go to St. Paul where daughter Scottie is born (“I hope it’s beautiful and a fool—a beautiful little fool.”)
Two collections of short stories published: Flappers and Philosophers (1921) and Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)

8. “The Vegetable”
1922: Moves back to Long Island to be close to Broadway
Had written a play (political satire) he hoped would be a great success
It flopped
To get out of debt, he wrote more stories
At the same time, his drinking problem worsened and his relationship with Zelda became more tumultuous.

9. Fitzgerald’s Drinking
Part of the Fitz myth; helped along by Hemingway in A Moveable Feast
Was always a careful craftsman and reviser, even of popular stories
Because of his image, Fitz wasn’t taken seriously as a writer in his own lifetime

10. Paris Again
1924: Fitzgeralds move to France: eventually he becomes friends with Hemingway, Stein, other expatriates
Summer and Fall of 1924: writes Gatsby; at the same time, Zelda begins having an affair
1925: Gatsby is published; receives limited critical praise but is not commercially successful

11. They Return to America
1927: Fitz works briefly in Hollywood (he had sold film rights to Gatsby)
Move to Delaware where they rent a 27-room mansion
1927: struggling with most recent novel; Zelda’s behavior becoming more erratic (decided to pursue ballet dancing, practicing up to 10 hrs. a day)
Eventually Z. has a nervous breakdown and is in and out of hospitals in the 1930s: to pay the bills, Fitz. continues to write stories, though he wanted to work on his novels
By 1929, Fitzgerald is earning $4000 for a story in the Post; but he could never quite get out of debt.
Friendship with Hemingway begins to cool

12. Zelda’s health problems
1932: Zelda suffers a relapse and spent the remainder of her life in and out of sanitariums
The same year Zelda published a novel, Save Me the Waltz, which further broadened the gulf between them
: exhibitions of Zelda’s artwork
1934: Fitzgerald publishes Tender Is the Night (did OK commercially, but FSF disappointed)

13. Hollywood
1937: Fitzgerald returns to Hollywood and works for about a year and a half for MGM
Finally is able to pay off debts, but Zelda’s hospital bills continue to be a financial drain
Begins a relationship with Shelia Graham, a Hollywood movie columnist; starts writing The Last Tycoon, based on his Hollywood experiences

14. Death and Fitzgerald’s reputation
1940: dies of a heart attack at age 44, all but forgotten
Reputation begins to revive in 1945 with the publication of The Crack-Up and The Portable F. Scott Fitzgerald and continues to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s
Zelda died in a fire in a NC hospital in 1948