F. Scott Fitzgerald: 1918-1940

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. At the age of 18 he fell in love with the 16-year-old Ginevra King, the prototype of Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby.

During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New Jersey, Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre.

The war ended just before he was to be sent overseas; after his discharge in 1919 he went to New York City to seek his fortune in order to marry.

In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre in New York. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Seeking tranquility for his work the Fitzgeralds went to France in the spring of 1924 . He wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall in Valescure near St. Raphael. But sales of the book were disappointing, though the stage and movie rights brought additional income.

During the next five years the Fitzgeralds travelled between Europe and America several times. To support his expensive life style with Zelda, Fitzgerald frequently interrupted his work on his novels to write short stories.

Fitzgerald's alcoholism and Zelda's mental breakdown attracted wide publicity in the 1930s.

He died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940.

F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure, yet The Great Gatsby defines the classic American novel.