Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 24, 1896. [256] On the night of December20, 1940, Fitzgerald and Graham attended the premiere of This Thing Called Love. [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. Were all very shy. [9] His parents sent him to two Catholic schools on Buffalo's West Sidefirst Holy Angels Convent (19031904) and then Nardin Academy (19051908). Born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, three times removed, Francis Scott Key, but was referred to as "Scott." [188][189] The couple traveled to Switzerland, where she underwent treatment at a clinic. F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed there in the summers of 1935 and 1936. 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). [193], During this time, Fitzgerald rented the "La Paix" estate in the suburb of Towson, Maryland, and worked on his next novel, which drew heavily on recent experiences. [218] Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli contends Fitzgerald did in fact have recurring TB. [313] He eschewed the realism of his previous two novels and composed a creative work of sustained imagination. [336] Critic Paul Rosenfeld wrote that many of Fitzgerald's short stories "lie on a plane inferior to the one upon which his best material extends. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 - December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. [415] His fourth novel Tender Is the Night was made into a 1955 CBS television episode, an eponymous 1962 film, and a BBC television miniseries in 1985. [280] According to Professor John Kuehl of New York University: "If you want to know about Spain, you read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. [354] Mere weeks after Fitzgerald's death in 1940, Westbrook Pegler wrote in a column for The New York World-Telegram that the author's passing recalled "memories of a queer bunch of undisciplined and self-indulgent brats who were determined not to pull their weight in the boat and wanted the world to drop everything and sit down and bawl with them. [237] The reunion proved a disaster due to Fitzgerald's uncontrollable alcoholism, and a disappointed Ginevra returned east to Chicago. 5 daughters. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. He is boozing in a wild manner and has become a nuisance. From 2014-2020, Seven Days allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. One week later, he married the woman he loved and his muse, Zelda Sayre. She had enough pressure coming from the outside. I needed to catch up. [187] Following this homicidal incident, doctors diagnosed Zelda with schizophrenia in June 1930. [294], For his first novel, Fitzgerald used as his literary templates H. G. Wells' 1909 work Tono-Bungay and Sir Compton Mackenzie's 1913 novel Sinister Street,[295] which chronicled a young college student's coming-of-age at Oxford University. While writing The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald inserted sentences from his wife's diary. Lanahan, who prefers not to reveal her age but coyly admits shes over 60, is one of two trustees of the Fitzgerald estate, meaning she has a say in who is granted rights to works such as The Great Gatsby and that she has a financial stake in its reproduction and licensing. 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. During our lunchtime interview, she inelegantly dumped her to-go container of salad onto a plate and giggled as it spilled all over the table. Fitzgerald met 18-year-old Zelda, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge, during his time in the infantry. The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith . [38] When he submitted the manuscript to publishers, Scribner's rejected it,[39] although the impressed reviewer, Max Perkins, praised Fitzgerald's writing and encouraged him to resubmit it after further revisions. And she really resented it if we brought it up. [40] Attempting to rebound from his rejection by Ginevra, a lonely Fitzgerald began dating a variety of young Montgomery women. His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [304], Nevertheless, Mencken conceded that Fitzgerald came the closest to capturing the wealthy's "idiotic pursuit of sensation, their almost incredible stupidity and triviality, their glittering swinishness". [384] His friend Edmund Wilson concurred with Millay's assessment and averred that Fitzgerald was a gifted writer with a vivid imagination who did not have any intellectual ideas to express. Family, Education and Early Life. F. Scott Fitzgerald, born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 - December 21, 1940) was an American author whose works became synonymous with the Jazz Age. [6] Edward's first cousin twice removed, Mary Surratt, was hanged in 1865 for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. post your service, apartments [136] Fitzgerald had been planning the novel since 1923, when he told his publisher Maxwell Perkins of his plans to embark upon a work of art that would be beautiful and intricately patterned. [388] Largely indifferent to politics, Fitzgerald himself ascribed the lack of ideational substance in his fiction to his upbringing, as his parents were likewise disinterested in such matters. Apr 24, 2023. [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. [386], Wilson attempted to convince Fitzgerald to write about America's social problems, but Fitzgerald did not believe that fiction should be used as a political instrument. [411] Other Fitzgerald short stories have been adapted into episodes of anthology television series,[412] as well as the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This Side of Paradise sold approximately 40,000 copies in the first year. His full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was taken from his second cousin on his fathers side. His mother was from a wealthy family, and his father, Edward, was a . [76] One evening in the fall of 1919, after an exhausted Fitzgerald had returned home from work, the postman rang and delivered a telegram from Scribner's announcing that his revised manuscript had been accepted for publication. [203] Its structure threw off many critics who felt Fitzgerald had not lived up to their expectations. "[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. [418], Beyond adaptations of his works, Fitzgerald himself has been portrayed in dozens of books, plays, and films. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. It has been the greatest credo in my life that I would rather be an artist than a careerist. [365] Although scholars posit different explanations for the continuation of class differences in the United States, there is a consensus regarding Fitzgerald's belief in its underlying permanence. His wife, Zelda, who has been insane for years, is now confined at the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital, and he is living in Park Avenue with his little daughter, Scottie". What do you want? [227] His attempts to write and sell more short stories faltered. [249] His failure in Hollywood pushed him to return to drinking, and he drank nearly 40 beers a day in 1939. "[312], Similar to Edith Wharton and Henry James, Fitzgerald's style often used a series of disconnected scenes to convey plot developments. There are so many horrible people we could be related to, and [Fitzgeralds] a great one, she says. [381], Because of such themes, scholars assert that Fitzgerald's fiction captures the perennial American experience, since it is a story about outsiders and those who resent themwhether such outsiders are newly-arrived immigrants, the nouveau riche, or successful minorities. [260] In Graham's place, her friend Dorothy Parker attended the visitation held in the back room of an undertaker's parlor. "[359] Consequently, he became a vocal critic of America's leisure class and his works satirized their lives. [281] In 1952, critic Cyril Connolly observed that "apart from his increasing stature as writer, Fitzgerald is now firmly established as a myth, an American version of the Dying God, an Adonis of letters" whose rise and fall inevitably prompts comparisons to the Jazz Age itself. Fitzgerald at his desk circa 1920. During the first decade of Fitzgerald's life, his fathers job took the family back and forth between Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York. [221], Fitzgerald's deteriorating health, chronic alcoholism, and financial woes made for difficult years in Baltimore. [115] Metropolitan Magazine serialized the manuscript in late 1921, and Scribner's published the book in March 1922. "[146][147], Following this incident, the Fitzgeralds relocated to Rome,[148] where he made revisions to the Gatsby manuscript throughout the winter and submitted the final version in February 1925. [n][343], With his debut novel, Fitzgerald became the first writer to turn the national spotlight upon this generation. [254] Approaching the final year of life, Fitzgerald wrote regretfully to his daughter: "I wish now I'd never relaxed or looked backbut said at the end of The Great Gatsby: I've found my linefrom now on this comes first. "[74] Despite mutual reservations,[87][88] they married in a simple ceremony on April3, 1920, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. [191] In February 1932, she underwent hospitalization at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. for sale by owner F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. [414] His third novel The Great Gatsby has been adapted numerous times for both film and television, most notably in 1926, 1949, 1958, 1974, 2000, and 2013. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is thought of as one of the great American novelists. [306] With the publication of The Beautiful and Damned, editor Max Perkins and others commended the conspicuous evolution in the quality of his prose. Still aspiring to a lucrative career in literature, he wrote several short stories and satires in his spare time. In 1929, Fitzgerald's domestic royalties for, Fitzgerald objected to Zelda naming her heroine's husband Amory Blaine, the name of the protagonist in. Luhrmann reached out to Lanahan about four years ago when he began work on the film. After six weeks, Zelda asked for a divorce. Everyone wanted to meet him. [253] Edmund Wilson and Aaron Latham suggested Hollywood sucked Fitzgerald's creativity like a vampire. Ill give it to you. [423] Other depictions of Fitzgerald include the TV movies Zelda (1993), F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1976), The Last of the Belles (1974), and the TV series Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015).[424]. [73] Having returned to his hometown as a failure, Fitzgerald became a social recluse and lived on the top floor of his parents' home at 599Summit Avenue, on Cathedral Hill. Shes been blown away by the enormous licensing agreements the new movie has inspired. [349] They decried his use of modern "alien slang" and claimed his depiction of young people engaged in drunken sprees and premarital sex to be wholly fabricated. Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky; I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and knew I would never be so happy again. Upper Valley Bookshops Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, 1. [340][341] In contrast to the older Lost Generation to which Fitzgerald and Hemingway belonged, the Jazz Age generation were younger Americans who had been adolescents during World War I and were largely untouched by the devastating conflict's psychological and material horrors. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. I told [Luhrmann] that I really liked it, and he was so bowled over! Lanahan recalls over lunch at her Burlington home. [312] Consequently, expectations arose that Fitzgerald would significantly improve with his third work. An error has occured while loading the map. [150] Upon its release on April10, 1925, Willa Cather, T. S. Eliot, and Edith Wharton praised Fitzgerald's work,[151] and the novel received generally favorable reviews from contemporary literary critics. [196] Piqued by what he saw as theft of his novel's plot material, Fitzgerald would later describe Zelda as a plagiarist and a third-rate writer. [258] After failed efforts to revive him, Graham ran to fetch Harry Culver, the building's manager. [270] The few critics who were familiar with his work regarded him as a failed alcoholicthe embodiment of Jazz Age decadence. "[98], As Fitzgerald was one of the most celebrated novelists during the Jazz Age, many admirers sought his acquaintanceship. Still, Lanahan considers herself lucky. [223] From 1933 to 1937, he was hospitalized for alcoholism eight times. [242] On occasions that Fitzgerald failed his attempt at sobriety,[k] he would ask strangers, "I'm F. Scott Fitzgerald. [142] Fitzgerald sought to confront Jozan and locked Zelda in their house until he could do so. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated at the Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Towson, Maryland. [11], Procter & Gamble fired his father in March 1908, and the family returned to Saint Paul. When his father lost his job, the Fitzgerald family returned to Minnesota. "[289], After Fitzgerald's death, writers such as John Dos Passos assayed Fitzgerald's gradual progression in literary quality and posited that his uncompleted fifth novel The Last Tycoon could have been Fitzgerald's greatest achievement. American author of novels and short stories, Born on Thursday, September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA , United States, Died on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: F. Scott FITZGERALD (1896), Copyright Wikipdia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. [50] Dispatched back to the base near Montgomery to await discharge, he renewed his pursuit of Zelda. Isn't Hollywood a dumpin the human sense of the word. The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann says F. Scott Fitzgerald's granddaughter enjoyed his adaptation of the novel and believes the author "would be proud" . [149] Fitzgerald declined a $10,000 offer for the serial rights, as it would delay the book's publication. [58] He then turned to writing advertising copy to sustain himself while seeking a breakthrough as an author of fiction. "After the book came out, Eleanor and her siblings [Samuel Jackson, Jr., and Cecilia Scott] agreed to donate the papers to Vassar, Scottie's alma mater," says Streett. [107], During this hedonistic era, alcohol increasingly fueled the Fitzgeralds' social life,[108] and the couple consumed gin-and-fruit concoctions at every outing. He didnt have enough, most of the time.. [94] The couple relocated two blocks to the Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street where they spent half an hour spinning in the revolving door. This is my immediate dutywithout this I am nothing. Updated on August 02, 2019. Although Tender is the Night was a commercial failure and was initially poorly received due to its chronologically jumbled structure, it has since gained in reputation and is now considered among the great American novels. Scott produced four novels and four short story collections; Zelda painted and wrote one novel, Save Me the Waltz . F. [141] She spent afternoons swimming at the beach and evenings dancing at the casinos with him. [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. [289][360], This preoccupation with the idle lives of America's leisure class in Fitzgerald's fiction attracted criticism. [326] After reading Gatsby, Gertrude Stein declared that Fitzgerald would "be read when many of his well-known contemporaries are forgotten. Having once found the intensity of art, nothing else that can happen in life can ever again seem as important as the creative process. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Agea term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age.During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920)[339], For much of his literary career, cultural commentators hailed Fitzgerald as the foremost chronicler of the Jazz Age generation whose lives were defined by the societal transition towards modernity. Well talk to reporters, but we dont like being grilled by people close to us., Lanahan says she can relate to the frustration her mother felt when people came to her seeking access to the literary giant. [278] This renewed interest led The New York Times editorialist Arthur Mizener to proclaim the novel a masterwork of American literature. [121] Fitzgerald viewed his stories as worthless except for "Winter Dreams", which he described as his first attempt at the Gatsby idea. Fitzgerald is the quintessential American writer. ', Astrological Sign: Libra, Fitzgeralds namesake (and second cousin three times removed on his father's side) was Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the "Star-Spangled Banner.". He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. "[165] To supplement their income, Fitzgerald often wrote stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. [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. She has painted portraits, illustrated childrens books, animated commercials and created films, including The Naked Hitch-Hiker, which won the 2006 Goldstone Award at the Vermont International Film Festival; and an animated documentary about Alcoholics Anonymous called One Alcoholic to Another, which she made with Orly Yadin. [240], Throughout their relationship, Graham claimed Fitzgerald felt constant guilt over Zelda's mental illness and confinement. 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. [41] At a country club, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre, a 17-year-old Southern belle and the affluent granddaughter of a Confederate senator whose extended family owned the White House of the Confederacy. "[280], The Great Gatsby's popularity led to widespread interest in Fitzgerald himself. [193] A year later, when Mencken met Zelda for the last time, he described her mental illness as immediately evident to any onlooker and her mind as "only half sane. [367] Consequently, Fitzgerald's characters are trapped in a rigid American class system. [117], Following Fitzgerald's adaptation of his story "The Vegetable" into a play, in October 1922, he and Zelda moved to Great Neck, Long Island, to be near Broadway. [298] This atonal blend of different fictive elements prompted cultural elites to fte the young Fitzgerald as a literary trailblazer whose work modernized a staid literature that had lagged "as far behind modern habits as behind modern history. "Well, three months before I was born," he wrote as an adult, "my mother lost her . . But its hard to deliver.. 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. Thanks for reading. [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. By then, Lanahan had learned to deflect the questions people often flung at her once they discovered she was related to Fitzgerald, exchanges she says she found deeply embarrassing. In college, she says, I was reading [Gatsby] in self-defense. [407] Later authors Budd Schulberg and Edward Newhouse were deeply affected by it, and John O'Hara acknowledged its influence on his work. But that was a one-time thing, she says. [175] Fitzgerald later rewrote Rosemary Hoytone of the central characters in Tender is the Nightto mirror Moran. Scott was the best friend a person could have to me". [315] He was particularly influenced by Cather's 1923 work, A Lost Lady,[316] which features a wealthy married socialite pursued by a number of romantic suitors and who symbolically embodies the American dream. [333][334] In this fashion, he quickly became one of the highest-paid magazine writers of his era and he earned $4,000 per story from the Saturday Evening Post at the apex of his fame. [202], Fitzgerald's own novel debuted in April 1934 as Tender Is the Night and received mixed reviews. The family tree for F. Scott Fitzgerald should not be considered exhaustive or authoritative. [56][57], Upon his discharge on February14, 1919, he moved to New York City, where he unsuccessfully begged the editors of various newspapers for a job. Scribner's prepared an initial print run of 20,000 copies. [394], Throughout his literary career, Fitzgerald often drew upon the private correspondence, diary entries, and life experiences of other persons to use in his fiction. [168], Hemingway alleged that Zelda sought to destroy her husband, and she purportedly taunted Fitzgerald over his penis' size. [239] Consequently, he moved in with Graham, who lived in Hollywood on North Hayworth Avenue, one block east of Fitzgerald's apartment on North Laurel Avenue. [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. Escaping the . The publication of The Great Gatsby prompted poet T. S. Eliot to opine that the novel was the most significant evolution in American fiction since the works of Henry James. [287], More so than most contemporary writers of his era, F. Scott Fitzgerald's authorial voice evolved and matured over time,[288] and his each successive novel represented a discernible progression in literary quality. [347][348], The perception of Fitzgerald as the chronicler of the Jazz Age and its insouciant youth led various societal figures to denounce his writings. His private life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost . "[398], Fitzgerald continued this practice throughout his life. Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure, since none of his works received more than modest commercial or critical success during his lifetime. She was 64. Scott Fitzgerald in a letter to H. L. Mencken, 1934[269], At the time of his death, Fitzgerald believed his life a failure and that his work was forgotten. If you want to know about the South, you read Faulkner. [134], In May 1924, Fitzgerald and his family moved abroad to Europe. "I told [Luhrmann] that I really liked it, and he was . The Red Cross distributed the novel to prisoners in Japanese and German POW camps. [364] His novel, The Great Gatsby, underscores the limits of the American lower class to transcend their station of birth. He might have interpreted them, and even guided them, as in their middle years they saw a different and nobler freedom threatened with destruction. What is it? Its some inside something. In 1930, Zelda suffered a breakdown. Zelda was Fitzgeralds muse, and her likeness is prominently featured in his works including This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night. [157] Amid World WarII, The Great Gatsby gained further popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free Armed Services Edition copies to American soldiers serving overseas. Born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, three times removed, Francis Scott Key, but was referred to as "Scott." He was also named after his deceased sister, Louise Scott, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth. His earliest short stories were cinematically adapted as flapper comedies such as The Husband Hunter (1920), The Chorus Girl's Romance (1920), and The Off-Shore Pirate (1921). A hideous town full of the human spirit at a new low of debasement. [321] By eliminating the earlier defects in his writing, he had upgraded from "a brilliant improvisateur" to "a conscientious and painstaking artist. [245] The realization that he was largely forgotten as an author further depressed him. [350] Fitzgerald ridiculed such criticisms,[351] and he opined that blinkered pundits wished to dismiss his works in order to retain their outdated conceptions of American society. [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. Well check it out and report the results. [301] They highlighted the fact that the work had "almost every fault and deficiency that a novel can possibly have,"[302] and a consensus soon emerged that Fitzgerald's prosemanship left much to be desired. [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. It sold well enough to warrant additional print runs reaching 50,000 copies. [109] They remarked to friends that their marriage would not last much longer. [248] His work on Three Comrades (1938) became his sole screenplay credit. [171] Soon after, Zelda threw herself down a flight of marble stairs at a party because Fitzgerald, engrossed in talking to Isadora Duncan, ignored her. "[258] Fitzgerald died of a heart attack due to occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis at 44 years old. From Toy Cars to PEZ Dispensers to Oil Lanterns, Vermonters Love Their Unusual Collections, 6. uvjam.org. [403] Fitzgerald frequently re-read Ginevra's story, and scholars have noted the plot similarities between Ginevra's story and Fitzgerald's novel. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. [224] The article damaged Fitzgerald's reputation and prompted him to attempt suicide after reading it. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. The American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, a legendary figure of the 1920s, was an extremely observant artist, a beautiful writer, and an exceptional craftsman. Yourcontribution will be matched! While abroad in Europe, Fitzgerald wrote and published, In France, Fitzgerald became close friends with writers.
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