The Biography Series- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you. F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’m waiting impatiently for The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey Maguire to come out on May 10th. You don’t get incredible movies without an incredible book behind it. This story has the distinction of being heralded as the greatest American novel ever written. It has endured with time and still sells consistently as it is required reading for many high schools. Who wrote this iconic book? F. Scott Fitzgerald, of course.
Who was this man? Was he a failure or an underappreciated genius of his time? Perhaps we should start at the end with him dying at the young age of 44, living with a girlfriend, almost broke and a raging alchoholic.
“Mr. Fitzgerald in his life and writings epitomized “all the sad young men” of the post-war generation. With the skill of a reporter and ability of an artist he captured the essence of a period when flappers and gin and “the beautiful and the damned” were the symbols of the carefree madness of an age.
Roughly, his own career began and ended with the Nineteen Twenties. “This Side of Paradise,” his first book, was published in the first year of that decade of skyscrapers and short skirts. Only six others came between it and his last, which, not without irony, he called “Taps at Reveille.” That was published in 1935. Since then a few short stories, the script of a moving picture or two, were all that came from his typewriter. The promise of his brilliant career was never fulfilled.” (Taken from his obituary at The New York Times)
This “sad young man” was born September 24, 1896 was named after distant cousin, Francis Scott Key. He grew up in a comfortable home and attended private schools throughout his education. His parents had a rather unconventional idea of learning and got the schools to agree to him only attending a half a day and he got to choose which half he wished to go.
He began writing at an early age and published a mystery in his high school newspaper. Princeton was his next stop and he dove into the many literary organizations there. He even submitted a manuscript to Charles Scribner’s Sons, but was rejected. His immersion into this world of literacy took a toll on his grades and he withdrew, failing, in his junior year. Mr. Fitzgerald joined the army and was afraid that he might not make it back from war so he wrote another novel called The Romantic Egotist which he again submitted to Scribner’s and was also rejected. They did, however, praise him for its originality and encouraged him to send in other work.
While in training, he also met the love of his life. Zelda Zayre was the belle of the ball and the daughter of a district judge. She chafed at the constrictions of proper society and saw a way out through this unknown writer. Zelda wasn’t a fool and told him to make his fortune before she would marry him. He tried to make a career in advertising and writing short stories but she got cold feet and called off the engagement. Nursing a broken heart, he returned to his parents’ house and revised The Romantic Egotist. Charles Scribner’s Sons accepted the manuscript and sold 50,000 copies which was an enormous amount of books at that time. While it became the most popular book of the year, he married Zelda in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
They lived a lavish lifestyle around the world and even lived in Paris for a time as he tried to re-capture his writing muse. It was there that The Great Gatsby was published and received good reviews. Even so, it did not earn enough money to keep them in the lifestyle they had become accustomed. While he wrote, Zelda decided to become a ballerina and trained exceptionally hard for 3 years with a ballet master. This led to a nervous breakdown and a journey into schizophrenia that plagued her for the rest of her life. ( She died during a fire at a sanitarium.)
While in Paris, F. Scott Fitzgerald spent his time making friends with other writers, namely Ernest Hemingway, and writing articles for countless magazines to earn a paycheck. He hated this part of his career but knew he had to “hack” out articles and movie scripts to keep up with the enormous debts he and Zelda accrued. They returned to the States and he headed for California to be closer to the movie studios. Even though he found the work degrading, he wrote some of the un-filmed parts of Gone With The Wind. During this time Zelda had an affair and they became even more estranged. She checked into another institution and he began an affair with Shelley Graham, a Hollywood columnist.
He created a character in a series of short stories that mocked himself as nothing but a Hollywood hack that sold at a brisk pace. He wrote more novels but couldn’t seem to capture the acclaim his first two provided. He was a notorious drunk and began to suffer poor health because of it. It is said that he also suffered with tuberculosis. Becoming increasingly frail after a heart attack, he moved in with Shelley because she lived on the ground floor and he could no longer climb stairs to his apartment. His final heart attack on December 21, 1940 took his life. The poet and satirist, Dorothy Parker, was heard while standing at his open coffin to mutter, “the poor son-of-a-bitch” which was a line of dialogue at Jay Gatsby’s funeral.
