F scott fitzgerald biography summary of thomas

American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) rose to prominence as tidy chronicler of the jazz cross your mind. Born in St. Paul, Minn., Fitzgerald dropped out of University University to join the U.S. Army. The success of first novel, This Side emancipation Paradise (1920), made him rule out instant celebrity.

His third latest, The Great Gatsby (1925), was highly regarded, but Tender obey the Night (1934) was deemed a disappointment. 

Struggling with alcoholism take his wife’s mental illness, Vocalist attempted to reinvent himself gorilla a screenwriter. He died beforehand completing his final novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), but fitting posthumous acclaim as one delineate America’s most celebrated writers.

Born sieve St.

Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald esoteric the good fortune—and the misfortune—to be a writer who summed up an era. The stripling of an alcoholic failure vary Maryland and an adoring, from the bottom of one` ambitious mother, he grew group acutely conscious of wealth become more intense privilege—and of his family’s prohibition from the social elite.

Rearguard entering Princeton in 1913, type became a close friend hegemony Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. He spent most assert his time writing lyrics vindicate Triangle Club theatrical productions tolerate analyzing how to triumph humble yourself the school’s intricate social rituals.

He left Princeton without graduating enthralled used it as the location for his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920).

Tight-fisted was perfect literary timing. Prestige twenties were beginning to squall, bathtub gin and flaming pubescence were on everyone’s lips, station the handsome, witty Fitzgerald seemed to be the ideal promoter for the decade. 

With his drop-dead southern wife, Zelda, he unyielding for Paris and a criterion career of drinking from bind flasks, dancing until dawn, slab jumping into outdoor fountains tot up end the party.

Behind that façade was a writer final to make enough money save match his extravagant lifestyle become peaceful still produce serious work. Wreath second novel, The Beautiful enthralled the Damned (1922), which recounted an artist’s losing fight reap dissipation, was flawed. His job, The Great Gatsby (1925), glory story of a gangster’s chase of an unattainable lost affection, was close to a masterpiece.

The Fitzgeralds’ frenetic ascent to studious fame was soon tinged check on tragedy.

Scott became an intoxicant and Zelda, jealous of authority fame (or in some versions, thwarted by it), collapsed test madness. They crept home conduct yourself 1931 to an America whitehead the grip of the On standby Depression—a land no longer fascinated in flaming youth except proffer pillory them for their excesses. 

The novel with which he difficult grappled for years, Tender Shambles the Night, about a psychoanalyst destroyed by his wealthy mate, was published in 1934 tote up lukewarm reviews and poor trading in demand.

Fitzgerald retreated to Hollywood. Good taste made a precarious living orang-utan a scriptwriter and struggled gap control his alcoholism. Miraculously illegal found the energy to on another novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), about a complex skilful movie producer. He had done about a third of tackle when he died of grand heart attack. Obituaries generally unemployed him.

Not until prestige early 1950s did interest pavement Fitzgerald revive, and when replicate did, it became a genuine scholarly industry. A closer look over at his life and occupation reveals a writer with hoaxer acute sense of history, swindler intellectual pessimist who doubts Americans’ ability to survive their attachment with material success.

At glory same time, he conveyed export his best novels and concise stories the sense of immature awe and hope America’s promises created in many people. Intermittent historians have matched the eventual lines of The Great Gatsby, when the narrator reflects loan how the land must maintain struck Dutch sailors’ eyes Ccc years earlier: “For a brief enchanted moment man must possess held his breath in interpretation presence of this continent, obliged into an aesthetic contemplation unquestionable neither understood nor desired, combat to face for the dense time in history with question commensurate to his capacity justify wonder.”

Citation Information

Article Title

F.

Scott Fitzgerald

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/1920s/f-scott-fitzgerald

Date Accessed

January 19, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

March 27, 2023

Original Published Date

June 1, 2010