F. Scott Fitzgerald's Family News
1896-1940
The Great American Dreamer
Happenings~As told by the Ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald
1896 (September 24): I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. I was the 3rd of 5 children and was named after Francis Scott Key, writer of "The Star Spangled Banner." My sister, Annabel, and I were the only two children to survive infancy.
1900 (July 24): My wife, Zelda, was born in Montgomery, Alabama.
1909: I was attending St. Paul Academy and made my first publication when I was just 14 years of age. I was luck enough to be featured in the school newspaper.
1913: I attended Princeton University and contributed to the Princeton Tiger.
1915: I met Ginevra King, my first serious love. I used her to influence many of the characters I used in my later writings.
1917: I was about to be a failure at Princeton, so I decided to join the Army and became a Second Lieutenant and reported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While there I started my first novel, The Romantic Egoist.
1918: I met Zelda at a dance in Montgomery, Alabama. That was the good part. The bad part was that they rejected by novel and they encouraged me to revise it.
1919: I was discharged from the military and tried to impress Zelda with a job in New York in advertising. We were engaged, but she was unimpressed and called off our engagement, so I moved home and lived with my parents. I then started to revise The Romantic Egoist and then got my new manuscript, This Side of Paradise published on September 16th.
1920: I guess Zelda liked that I was now a famous author with a published book, so she married me in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.
1921: We liked to travel, so we went for a 3-month trip to England, France and Italy. Later that year we were blessed with the birth of our only daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald. We called her "Scottie."
1922: I published another book, The Beautiful and Damned and then we decided to move to Great Neck, Long Island. While there I published a few short stories for magazines and tried to write a play, but it was unsuccessful. While living there, I developed the setting and mood for my next novel.
1924: I took my family to Paris for inspiration and spent most of the next seven years there.
1925: The Great Gatsby was published, so we settled in Paris, after traveling all over. I also met Ernest Hemingway in a local pub in Paris. I wrote to my editor, telling him about this young American author I met in Paris.
1929: The US stock market crashes and Zelda has her first nervous breakdown. She spent a lot of time in the hospital due to this. I used this happening in my life to write the short story, "One Trip Abroad". It was about an American couple who fell apart in Europe.
1931: We returned to the US.
1934: Tender is the Night was my next novel published and unfortunately that same year, Zelda suffered another nervous breakdown.
1936: I guess all the stress got to me and I had a mental breakdown. I wrote a three part autobiographical essay that was published in Esquire Magazine. The third and final part of the essay was printed the same month that Zelda was admitted into the mental asylum in Asheville, North Carolina.
1937: I moved to Hollywood to write screen plays. I hope that I would make my way out of debt with this.
1939: I guess I wasn't that good at writing plays and I lost my contract with MGM. I tried free lance gigs and had a difficult time with alcoholism. I lost a couple jobs due to drunkenness and had to be hospitalized. I tried to write another novel, The Last Tycoon, but couldn't sell the rights to a magazine.
1940: I was with my new lover, Sheilah Graham, when I had a heart attack and died.
Ginerva King~
St. Patrick's Cathedal~
This Side of Paradise~
"Scottie"~
Tender is the Night~
Sheilah Graham~
Mary "Mollie" McQuillan Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
Zelda Fitzgerald
My Most Famous Book~The Great Gatsby
Some more of my books:
- This Side of Paradise
- The Great Gatsby
- Gatsby Girls
- The Beautiful and Damned
- Tender is the Night
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Tales of the Jazz Age
- The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western
- Flappers and Philosophers
About the Ghost
Email: fscottfitzgerald1940@ghostmail.com
Website: http://www.stmarysrockville.org/
Location: St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 520 Veirs Mill Rd., Rockville, Md.
Phone: (301) 424-5550
Facebook: facebook.com/GhostofFitzgerald
Twitter: @f_scott_fitzy1940
Works Cited
Erbentraut, Joseph. "Ginevra King, Fitzgerald's 'Gatsby' Inspiration And His First Love, Was Quite A Gal (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"F. Scott Fitzgerald." - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"F Scott Fitzgerald Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
"F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"F. Scott Fitzgeraldapproach to Life and Appearances." F. Scott Fitzgerald Attitude. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"France.fr, the Official Website of France." France.fr, the Official Website of France. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.
"Francis Scott Key Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
"The Great Gatsby - Book Review." The Great Gatsby Book Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
"The Legend of Zelda (Sayre Fitzgerald)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "F. Scott Fitzgerald Timeline of Important Dates." Shmoop.com.
Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"St. Mary's Catholic Church." St. Mary's Catholic Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"STORY:." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"Who Is Mollie Mcquillan Fitzgerald?" Omnilexica. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.