F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genius is the ability to put in effect what is on your mind.
-The Great Gatsby-
The Great Gatsby was F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous writing, but at the time of publication no one would have ever known it would become as big as it is today. When it was published in 1925 to when Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940 he had sold fewer than 50,000 copies and they were sold for 2 dollars but he only got 10% of the earnings which ended up making him 10,000 dollars in his life-time. If Fitzgerald was still alive today he would have made over 100 million dollars off the book. It became popular during WWII and 150,000 copies were sent to troops overseas. Now today over 500,000 copies are sold annually. Also, since it was publicized about 25 million copies have been sold. The Great Gatsby's Significance to America is that it shaped how we see the 1920's or The Jazz Age which is what these times were named by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
-The Last Tycoon-
The Last Tycoon also known as The Love of the Last Tycoon and was published in 1941, 16 years after Fitzgerald's death. He had been writing it when he died so it was never publicized until later when Edmund Wilson, who was a good friend of Fitzgerald compiled the book and edited it to be published. The book was known as The Last Tycoon until 1993 when Mathew J. Bruccoli from University of Cambridge edited it and changed the title to Fitzgerald's intended name of The Love of the Last Tycoon.
-This Side of Paradise-
This Side of Paradise published in 1920 was 23 year old Fitzgerald's first book to have ever been published. When he was 22 his girlfriend Zelda broke up the relationship. Fitzgerald hoped that if he finished This Side of Paradise and it was successful he could win her back. 80 of the 288 pages in the novel were taken from an unpublished book Fitzgerald had written while attending Princeton called The Romantic Egotist. When Charles Scribner's Sons received the book they were hesitant to publish it but Maxwell Perkins managed to convince them to have the book publicized. After it was published in the following Spring he went to see Zelda and she was so impressed they began dating and later got married. While he only got 10% of the earnings of the $1.75 book he still made 6,000 dollars the first year it was published. More importantly it was a big step in his career making him more famously known.
-1926 Silent Film Trailer of the Great Gatsby-
1926 - The Great Gatsby - LOST FILM - F. Scott Fitzgerald | Herbert Brenon - Trailer
-A Lost Film-
During 1926 an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's book The Great Gatsby was produced. It was a play adaptation of the book and Fitzgerald sold the rights of the movie to hollywood for 16,666.00 dollars. This amount of money back than was 219,125.85 to us because of inflation. The definition of a lost film is when a movie is not kept in any studio archives, in private collections, or in public archives. When silent films were being made not many were kept. More silent films were lost than saved than when movies became color in the 30's through the 50's over half of them were lost. All current movies are kept and stored in archives and will not be lost.
-Fitzgeralds impact on American culture-
He named the 1920's The Jazz Age. He showed in his literature what the 1920's were like and how the parties were so extravagant. He shaped our image of the 1920's and what we think about those times. He captured the age and put them into books for us to read in the future. After the collapse in 1929 when his wife started to go crazy and have mental breakdowns his books became more mature and about regret. At this point he could only write when sober but his wife, being psychotic would get him to drink to keep him from continuing his books. He also showed what it was like when the crash happened and what happened when people went bankrupt just like that. He wrote about the ups and downs of the 1920's.
-Life & Career-
When Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 he was named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key who wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner". In 1912 when Fitzgerald attended Newman high school, a catholic school he met Father Sigourney Fay who noticed Fitzgeralds exceptional writing talent and pushed him to pursue his ambitious goals. At Princeton he met a good friend named Edmund Wilson who later compiled the rest of The Last Tycoon to be published after his death. When F. Scott Fitzgerald flunked out of Princeton he went to join the U.S. military. He was scared he would go and leave his literary dreams unaccomplished so he quickly wrote The Romantic Egotist which was declined by the publishing company but later in life Fitzgerald used the writing and put it into his book called This Side of Paradise. While stationed outside of Montgomery Alabama he met Zelda Sayre and he fell in love with her. The war ended in 1918 before Fitzgerald was ever deployed so he tried to convince Zelda to marry him. They than got engaged but Zelda broke off the relationship because she realized that he would not be able to support her. He then moved back to live with his parents and wrote This Side of Paradise. The book was a success and his income could meet Zelda's needs. They than resumed their relationship and got married in St. Patricks Cathedral in New York. He would go to Paris a lot in the 20's and befriended Earnest Hemingway who disliked Zelda and said that she was unstable and would encourage Fitzgeralds drinking problem to keep him from writing. Around 1929 because of his Financial issues he started drinking a lot again messing with his career. Then in 1930 his wife was struck with a mental disability called Schizophrenia where you are confused about what is reality. He than went to write a book about what was happening and called it Tender is the Night and his wife wrote a book called Save Me the Waltz and it was about their life in Europe in which the stories were not all true and Fitzgerald got very angry because of this. As this happened his drinking problems became worse and worse until people started saying he was becoming a nuisance. He started getting better and worked on short stories and scripts but once again his drinking issues and the problems with Zelda health resurfaced. His heavy drinking soon led to a Heart Attack at the age of 44 on December 21, 1940.
-Picture of Zelda Sayre at the age of 18 when she met F. Scott Fitzgerald-
-Modern Day F. Scott Fitzgerald-
-Jordan Belfort-
Jordan Belfort is a lot like F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is because Jordan Belfort wrote about the 1990's and showed what it was like to be a rich on wall street. He made huge extravagant purchases just like people in the 20's would do. F. Scott Fitzgerald was also a very heavy drinker and Belfort was a big drug abuser, because drugs became popularly used and abused in the 30's. They both talked about extravagant parties and young love tragedy type stories. They both captured the time of their era and expressed it through a book. In Jordan Belfort's book The Wolf Of Wall Street was based on a true story and captured the time, Fitzgerald's book The Great Gatsby was not based on a true story but the main character was a lot like him. These two books I think are very similar in the fact that they express the time the two men wanted to express.