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F. Scott Fitzgerald

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F. Scott Fitzgerald

via Wikipedia: F. Scott Fitzgerald · see source

He died of a heart attack in 1940 at age 44 after long struggling with alcoholism.[1] During the Great Depression, F. Scott Fitzgerald experienced financial difficulties because the popularity of his works declined.[1] In 1941, the unfinished novel The Last Tycoon was edited and brought out by Edmund Wilson, a friend of Fitzgerald's.[1]

Life and work

After his father's business failed, the family moved to Buffalo, New York, where Fitzgerald spent most of his first decade.[2] Rejected by Ginevra as an unsuitable match, a suicidal Fitzgerald enlisted in the United States Army during World War I.[3] After his discharge in 1919, he moved to New York City and worked in advertising while seeking a breakthrough as an author.[4] The couple became national celebrities for their wild behavior, living at the Biltmore Hotel until they were asked to leave.[5][6]

Fitzgerald's third novel The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 but sold fewer than 23,000 copies by year's end.[7][8] After the American Civil War, Edward Fitzgerald, Scott's father, relocated from Maryland to Minnesota, where he started a wicker-furniture business; his ancestry was Irish and English.[9] In 1913, Fitzgerald began his studies at Princeton University, where he was among a small number of Catholic students.[10] While home in Saint Paul for Christmas break during his second year, the 18-year-old Fitzgerald met and fell in love with Ginevra King, a 16-year-old debutante from Chicago.[11]

Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published in 1920; it was an immediate success, with roughly 40,000 copies sold within its first year.[12] After moving to Hollywood, Fitzgerald had an unsuccessful career writing screenplays and lived with columnist Sheilah Graham.[1]

What the cited sources add

Wilson also stated Fitzgerald had "the Irish gift for turning language into something iridescent and surprising"[1] Fitzgerald's wealthy neighbor on Long Island, Max Gerlach, was a gentleman bootlegger who used the phrase "old sport" and fostered myths about himself.[13] Fitzgerald did not like to talk about his family's link to Confederate figures like Mary Surratt.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wilson, "The Shores of Light" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Donaldson 1983, p. 4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mizener 1951, p. 70; . Fitzgerald wished to die in battle, and he hoped that his unpublished novel would become a great success in the wake of his death.; . Fitzgerald wished to die in battle, and he hoped that his unpublished novel would become a great success in the wake of his death. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Turnbull 1962, p. 6; Milford 1970, p. 3–4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bruccoli 2002, p. 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Turnbull 1962, p. 6; Turnbull 1962, p. 6; Turnbull 1962, p. 6; Bruccoli 2002, p. 14; Turnbull 1962, p. 6; Milford 1970, p. 3–4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bruccoli 2002, p. 14; Mizener 1951, p. 70; Bruccoli 2002, p. 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bruccoli Baughman 1996, p. 32; Bruccoli Baughman 1996, p. 32 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: : Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to John O'Hara: "I am half black Irish and half old American stock with the usual exaggerated ancestral pretensions."; Turnbull 1962, p. 6 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: : Edmund Wilson later claimed "that Fitzgerald was the only Catholic he knew at Princeton."; Mulrooney, "F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald", Wilmington News Journal, November 16, 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: : Fitzgerald later confided to his daughter that Ginevra King "was the first girl I ever loved" and that he "faithfully avoided seeing her" to "keep the illusio; West 2005, p. 21 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: : "The appearance of the novel... made him a household name".; Bruccoli 2002, p. 14; Bruccoli 2002, p. 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mizener 1951, p. 70; Mizener 1951, p. 70; : Although Fitzgerald strove "to become member of the community of the rich, to live from day to day as they did, to share their interests and tastes", he found; : Fitzgerald "admired deeply the rich" and yet his wealthy friends often disappointed or repulsed him. Consequently, he harbored "the smouldering hatred of a pe; Kruse 2002, p. 51; Kruse 2002, p. 51; Kruse 2014, p. 15; Kruse 2002, p. 51; Bruccoli 2002, p. 14; Kruse 2002, p. 51 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "F. Scott Fitzgerald" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mayfield 1971, p. 28; Turnbull 1962, p. 6 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article F. Scott Fitzgerald (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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