Contents
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Writing The Great Gatsby and the promises of the Jazz Age.
Tender Is the Night · American fiction
- Born
- 24 September 1896
- Birthplace
- Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
- Died
- 21 December 1940
More people
F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short-story writer who examined aspiration, wealth and disappointment. His fiction is closely associated with the 1920s, but often exposes the fragility beneath that decade’s apparent freedom.
Early life
Middle-class childhood
Grew up between Minnesota and New York with an acute awareness of social status.
Princeton
Attended university and wrote for student publications before leaving without a degree.
Career
- 1917–1919
Army service
Served in the United States during the First World War and worked on fiction.
- 1920
Literary breakthrough
This Side of Paradise brought rapid attention and commercial opportunity.
- 1920s–1930s
Novels and magazines
Supported himself through stories while developing more ambitious novels.
- Late 1930s
Hollywood work
Worked as a screenwriter and began an unfinished Hollywood novel.
Selected work
This Side of Paradise
A young man’s social and romantic ambitions unfold after the war.
The Great Gatsby
Wealth and reinvention conceal an impossible attempt to recover the past.
Tender Is the Night
A couple’s life abroad reveals emotional and professional collapse.
Beyond work
Zelda Fitzgerald
Married the writer and artist in 1920; they had a daughter, Scottie.
Later reputation
The Great Gatsby’s standing grew substantially after his death.
Sources & photo credit
Biography ↗Life and work ↗Photo: Photographer unknown. The publicity photo was distributed by Fitzgerald's publisher, Scribner's (source: Curtis, William (April 15, 1922). "Some Recent Books". Town & Country , Vol. LXXIX, pp. 62, 76; see photo caption). First known publication in The World's Work monthly magazine.. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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