F. Scott Fitzgerald

Born September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota

F. Scott Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American author whose most famous work was The Great Gatsby (1925). Fitzgerald was born into an upper-middle class family in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1917 Fitzgerald left Princeton University to join the army. While in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1918, he met Zelda Sayre (1900 –1948). After his discharge from the army in 1919, Fitzgerald moved to New York City. While working in advertising, he also found time to develop his first novel, This Side Of Paradise (1920). He and Zelda married in 1920 and settled at a home in Westport, Connecticut, continuing the lifestyle of the rich and famous, constantly entertaining while beginning a turbulent life together. Zelda also wrote; many of her stories and reviews, some of them of her husband's works, were published in the same magazines as Fitzgerald's.

After the immense success of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's All the Sad Young Men (1926) prophetically harkened things to come. It was not until 1934 that Fitzgerald published his next book, Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald was increasingly turning to alcohol, sometimes becoming abusive. Zelda often acted out impetuously, embarrassing herself in front of friends and strangers, and in 1930 she a nervous breakdown. In 1931, Fitzgerald went to California to work on scripts for MGM, including Red-Headed Woman, A Yank at Oxford, Marie Antoinette and Three Comrades. His alcoholism continually interfered with his life and work, requiring hospitalization at times. Still struggling with her own illness, Zelda went to live with her mother in Montgomery in 1940. The same year, Fitzgerald had a heart attack; a month later, he died of a second heart attack at Sheilah Graham's apartment in Hollywood, California. Zelda survived him by eight years, dying in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.