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F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

"Scott Fitzgerald" and "Francis Fitzgerald" redirect here. For other people with these names, see Scott Fitzgerald (disambiguation) and Francis Fitzgerald (disambiguation). For F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter, see Frances Scott Fitzgerald.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
(1896-09-24)September 24, 1896
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

December 21, 1940(1940-12-21) (aged 44)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Writer, essayist

Princeton University (no degree)

1920–1940

(m. 1920)

Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.


His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).


Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon,[1] edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.

1920 –

This Side of Paradise

1922 –

The Beautiful and Damned

1922 – (Novella)

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz

1925 –

The Great Gatsby

1934 –

Tender Is the Night

1941 – (unfinished)

The Last Tycoon

at Standard Ebooks

Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald in eBook form

at Project Gutenberg

Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald

at Faded Page (Canada)

Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald

at Internet Archive

Works by or about F. Scott Fitzgerald

at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald

at Princeton University

F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers

at LibraryThing

Catalog of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Personal Library

from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History

"Writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald"

F. Scott Fitzgerald in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia

author of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Toward the Summit, plus coverage of a Fitzgerald literary celebration, NORTHERN LIGHTS Minnesota Author Interview TV Series #361 (1996)

Interview with John Koblas and Dave Hage