F. Scott Fitzgerald1896-1940

• Born in St. Paul, Minnesota.

• Named after Francis Scott Key, the author of the national anthem and a distant relative of Fitzgerald’s mother.

• Family a mixture of old money on his mother’s side and working class on his father’s.

• 1911-1912 Attended a prep school in New Jersey.

• 1913 - Entered Princeton University.

• 1917 - Dropped out to enlist in the Army during WW1.

• The war ended before he was shipped out.

• Wrote a novel The Romantic Egoist, but was rejected by publishers.

• While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre.

• Zelda, a southern debutante from a wealthy family; father a senator, grandfather a judge.

• Zelda would not marry Fitzgerald unless he showed promise of making some money.

Zelda Syre 1900-1948

• Published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920.

• Married Zelda when the novel was sold to Hollywood later in 1920.

Scott and Zelda in front of their house.

• The couple becomes the epitome of the Roaring Twenties: women get the right to vote, prohibition, women’s fashions change, women start attending college.

• Zelda is considered the original “Flapper.”

• They have wild parties, are thrown out of speakeasies and respectable clubs.

• 1921 - Zelda has a baby girl, Scottie.

• The family moves to Paris, joining the group of American expatriate writers dubbed “The Lost Generation” by Gertrude Stein.

• 1925 - The Great Gatsby published.

• Fitzgerald and Hemingway become close.

• Zelda a bit mad. Decides to be a ballerina in her thirties; takes up writing and dancing.

• Zelda publishes Save Me The Waltz.

• Zelda diagnosed schizophrenic and is placed in a sanitorium in Switzerland.

• Fitzgerald can’t visit but sends her flowers daily.

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.

• 1935 - Publishes Tender is the Night.

• Zelda is in and out of mental institutions.

• Fitzgerald publishes short stories and works in Hollywood on screenplays.

• Dies in 1940 of a heart attack.

• Zelda dies in 1948 in a fire in a mental institution.

Fitzgerald said: The mark of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Flappers