Early Life Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 24, 1896 to Mollie and Edward Fitzgerald. He was an only child, although his mother, Mollie, had lost two children to epidemics before he was born.
His mother inherited a substantial amount of money from a grandfather who had achieved success as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul, MN.(Donaldson)
His father was of an aristocratic background, originally a southerner. He kept the family on the move in the search for business opportunity between the time F. Scott Fitzgerald was born until 1908. They moved from St. Paul and then made several moves around upstate NY. In 1908, the family returned to St. Paul again, his father with a heavy head after being fired from his job at Proctor & Gamble.(Northman 8)
While the Fitzgerald's were not particularly well off, both parents would demonstrate traditions of the upper class and were able to afford a slightly upper middle class lifestyle through F. Scott Key's youth. As a child, Scott associated with the rich children but held an awareness that he wasn't fully integrated in their society. His mother was especially ambitious for him, constantly showing him off and introducing him when there was company to be had.(Donaldson)
School Life
Scott attended Catholic schools through his youth. After the family returned to St. Paul, MN from NY, Scott attended 2 years at the St. Paul Academy, another Catholic school. He was very driven from a young age to achieve great success in any way he could at school. He was very sociable, got involved in school athletics, and developed a great interest in literary expression. He began to publish fiction in the school magazine in 1910 at St. Paul. In 1911 he was sent to a Catholic prep school in Hackensack, NJ - The Newman School. He attempted to distinguish himself at athletics at first but realized he was better suited to pursuing his literary skills. At Newman he would submit several stories in the school paper, Newman News.(Northman 8)With his eyes set on Princeton, Scott graduated from Newman in 1913 and dedicated himself to focusing on his writing skills in his freshman year. He joined the Princeton Triangle Club, contributing lyrics for their musicals as well as writing for the Princeton Tiger. During this time he made friends with Edmund Wilson, editor of the Tiger who came to be known as a formidable literary critic later in his life.(Northman 8-9)
In the winter of 1915 Scott temporarily withdrew from Princeton, citing illness. After a brief interim, he returned in 1916. In 1917 with the war having captured his imagination, he withdrew from Princeton entirely and joined the army as a second lieutenant.(Northman 9)
Zelda
Fitzgerald completed This Side of Paradise in 1919 and Scribner's published it in September of the same year. Fitzgerald's success exploded and Zelda consented to be his wife in November of 1919. Fitzgerald and Zelda were married in New York in April 1921. At the time they were married, he was 24 and she was 20. They moved to a luxury apartment in New York shortly after and began to live a wild social life. Fitzgerald supported them by writing short stories and completing his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (published in 1922). They moved around often and shortly after their return from a trip to Europe, Zelda gave birth to their daughter, Scottie.(Donaldson)
Family Life
In April of 1925, Scribners published The Great Gatsby and it was received with great approval by writers such as T.S. Eliot, Edith Wharton, and Gertrude Stein among others. Unfortunately, it did not sell half as many copies as The Beautiful and Damned and Fitzgerald did not publish another novel until 1934.(Northman 11)
Zelda was typically left alone while Scott went out to tour the bars. She took a strong interest in ballet, taking lessons from a distinguished instructor and working very hard to make something of a career out of it. Most sources cite this as the source of stress that led Zelda into her first breakdown. She went off to the first of many sanitariums in April of 1930. In the fall of 1931, the Fitzgerald's returned home, this time to Montgomery, Alabama. Zelda became increasingly unstable and was permanently institutionalized the same year.(Donaldson)
Later Life and Death
Scribners published Tender Is the Night in 1934, a novel that Fitzgerald had been working on since 1925. It became a best seller for several weeks after it's release, but sales quickly fell off and it ended up selling even fewer copies than The Great Gatsby. Reviews were favorable, but as with The Great Gatsby, people were not buying it.(Donaldson)
In Hollywood, Fitzgerald met Sheila Graham, a 28 year old British girl who gave him support in his later years and helped him with his alcoholism. Fitzgerald's health began to decline rapidly between 1939 and 1941. In 1939 he had begun The Last Tycoon, a novel based on his experiences in Hollywood. Not even a third was completed when he suffered his first heart attack in November 1940.(Northman 11-12)
In December of 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered his second and fatal heart attack. Sheila Graham was present when it occurred and rushed to get help, but he was pronounced dead within minutes of it's occurrence.
Fitzgerald died at the age of 44 in Hollywood, California.
Zelda lived until March of 1948 when she died in a sanitarium fire in Asheville, North Carolina at the age of 47.
(Northman 12)
