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- T h e A u t h o r
- Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, American novelist, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. In 1913 he entered Princeton University, but quit before graduating in 1917. In 1919 he moved to New York and worked for an advertising agency. In the same year he published his first story "Babes in the wood" and returned to St Paul. There he rewrote a novel he had begun in 1917, originally entitled "The Romantic Egotist". It appeared as "This Side of Paradise" in 1920 and became an instant success. In the same year he married Zelda Sayre, herself an aspiring writer. His success as a writer enabled the couple to lead a decadent and extravagant life. Dividing their time between America and Europe, the Fitzgeralds became famous for their lifestyle. 'Sometimes I don't know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels'. He followed his first success with "The Beautiful and the Damned" in 1922, and "The Great Gatsby" in 1925 which he considered his masterpiece. Unfortunately, this novel sold poorly and Fitzgerald descended into alcoholism. It was also at this time that he wrote many of his short stories. In France Fitzgerald met two other American writers - Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. During this time his drinking increased and Fitzgerald became an alcoholic. The couple did spend money faster than he earned it and he was unable to manage his finances. In 1927, and again in thirties, he worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter. In 1930 Zelda became increasingly troubled by mental illness. She was hospitalised periodically from then until her death in 1948. The almost autobiographical novel "Tender Is the Night", published in 1934, was a commercial failure. In the following years Fitzgerald began to write confessional essays about his broken health and exhaustion as a writer. In 1937 he fell in love with movie columnist Sheilah Graham and died in her apartment in Los Angeles in 1940 .
 
- T h e W o r k s
- Juvenilia & Apprenticeship Writings >>>
This Side of Paradise (novel, 1920)
Flappers and Philosophers (short stories, 1920)
The Beautiful and the Damned (novel, 1922)
Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories, 1922)
The Vegetable (play, 1922)
The Great Gatsby (novel, 1925)
All the Sad Young Men (short stories, 1926)
Tender Is the Night. (1934)
Taps at Reveille (short stories, 1935)
The Crack-Up (essays, 1936/45)
Three Comrades (screenplay, 1938)
The Love of the Last Tycoon (unfinished novel, 1941)
Poems
Correspondence
- A p p e n d i x
- The Fitzgerald Homepage (University of South Carolina)
Bibliography (University of South Carolina)
Thomas A. Larson's Fitzgerald site
Sources/Colophon
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