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F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald was an alcoholic writer and his wife, Zelda, spent most of her time in and out of mental institutions. All of this had a profound effect on Fitzgerald, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Through it all, he managed to write an incredibly vast amount of short stories, essays, and novels. Among them, The Great Gatsby: the defining novel of Fitzgerald’s career. This novel, along with many other works of Fitzgerald’s, is widely praised today with its witty lyricism, its incredible descriptiveness, and for its use of symbolism. Fitzgerald grew up during the early 1900’s, and wrote most of his major works during the 1920’s, although he did produce magnificent works during the 1930’s as well (Donaldson 3-18, Cheerer 79). Fitzgerald fought in WWI and was Second Lieutenant of an infantry. While in the army, he met Zelda Sayre, whom he would fall in love with and marry. Zelda, a beautiful woman and an author herself, also had a lasting effect on Fitzgerald’s life, from cheating on him with a Frenchman, to being in and out of mental institutions. The events of the 1920’s also deeply affect Fitzgerald. From bootlegging to the Great Depression, all had an enormous effect not only on his writing, but on his life as well. While Fitzgerald did make decent money during his short career, he and Zelda spent the money as quickly as it came, mostly on luxury, extravagant parties, and alcohol. All of this affected his writing one way or another, but most of the time Fitzgerald wrote to work his way out of debt, and that is why he was so widely criticized during his lifetime. Critics said that he didn’t really care about his writing, that he was doing it just for the money, and that is not at all true. He put his heart and soul into his writing and took it very seriously, and that is seen today as we look back on some of his works. Because Fitzgerald was not widely recognized during his life for writing, but rather for his drinking habits and his love for money, Fitzgerald, on his death bed, feared that he was a failure and would soon be forgotten, but that is not at all true (Nash 40). Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. He was the second cousin three times removed of the author of the National Anthem, Francis Scott Key. His parent’s pride in his father’s ancestry is shown in the author’s name. Edward, his father, was from Maryland. He expressed loyalty to the old South and its traditions. Mary McQuillan, Fitzgerald’s mother, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became rich as a wholesale grocer. Both of Fitzgerald’s parents were practicing Catholics, and the family lived off of Mary’s inheritance (Donaldson 3-18). Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy as a young teen, and his first writing, a detective story, appeared in the school newspaper when he was just thirteen. From 1911-1913, Fitzgerald attended Newman School, a Catholic Prep School in New Jersey. He then went on to Princeton. He did well at first, but Fitzgerald’s grades declined rapidly in 1917 when he neglected his studies in order to get his literary apprenticeship. This led him to being put on academic probation. Unlikely to graduate, Fitzgerald decided to join the army in 1917, where he became Second Lieutenant in the infantry (Donaldson 3-18). In June of 1918, Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan in Alabama. It was here that he fell in love with his future wife, 18 year-old Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Judge. The war ended right before Fitzgerald was sent back overseas, and in 1919, he went to New York to seek his fortune so he could marry Zelda.
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