24 Sep 2021
On This Day
24 September 2021 Cheryl

24 September 1896: F. Scott Fitzgerald is born

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald in 1923

Before producing The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a play that completely bombed. In the early 1920s he worked on The Vegetable, a play that lampooned “the American dream.” It opened in November 1923 and closed after one single, dispiriting performance. [1]

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, best known for his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and more than 160 short stories.

Born into a middle-class family in Minnesota, USA, his father was a salesman, and his Irish-Catholic mother was the heir to a successful Minnesota grocery store. He attended Princeton University but dropped out in 1917 to join the US army during World War I, although he was never deployed. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery’s exclusive country club set. Zelda rejected Fitzgerald’s marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects.

To earn money after discharge, Fitzgerald submitted stories to mass-circulation magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s Weekly, and Esquire, something he continued to do for the rest of his life. He also frequently visited Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. The publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise in March 1920 made 24-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. The couple embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities.

This Side of Paradise became a cultural sensation and cemented Fitzgerald’s reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade. He strove to earn a solid literary reputation, but his playboy image and affluent lifestyle impeded the assessment of his work.

Fitzgerald lived the high life and earned a fortune, but he squandered it all, and his marriage with the wild and crazy Zelda collapsed. I find his life story a fascinating one, and feel, like Hemingway, that Fitzgerald “prostituted” his talent with much of what he wrote. But he left us with The Great Gatsby which is no mean legacy to leave behind. One of the houses that he and Zelda lived in, in Montgomery, Alabama, is now an excellent museum, complete with two Airbnb suits you can rent – well worth a visit or an overnight stay.

F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack at age 44.