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F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940. The Great Gatsby. Early Life:. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota Distant relative of Francis Scott Key His father was a business failure His mother was the daughter of rich Irish immigrants Attended Catholic schools where he excelled in writing, but failed at sports
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F. Scott Fitzgerald1896-1940 The Great Gatsby
Early Life: • Born in St. Paul, Minnesota • Distant relative of Francis Scott Key • His father was a business failure • His mother was the daughter of rich Irish immigrants • Attended Catholic schools where he excelled in writing, but failed at sports • Attended Princeton and was active in drama and writing, but flunked out eventually • Had his first “alcoholic” episode in college
Romance and Fame: • Enlisted when WWI broke out • Went to officers’ training in Alabama; the war ended before he could be sent overseas • Met and became engaged to Zelda Sayre, a wealthy southern belle, the daughter of a state supreme court judge • Zelda broke the engagement when she learned that Scott was actually poor • Scott returned to St. Paul and shut himself in his room, writing This Side of Paradise
This Side of Paradise • An immediate bestselling novel about “the Roaring Twenties,” which Scott named “the Jazz Age” • Part of the novel’s popularity stemmed from its somewhat “risque” content • Zelda agreed to marry Scott
Scott’s Career: • Writing brought fame and fortune • Scott’s short stories sold for about $4000 each during a time when a new car was $600, and most teachers earned $1200 a year. ($4000 in the 1920s had the buying power of $40,000 today.) • He and Zelda lived glamorous, fast-paced lives • They had one daughter, Scottie • Marriage began to crumble with their wild drinking and Zelda’s bouts with insanity
Major Works: • This Side of Paradise • Tender is the Night • The Beautiful and Damned • The Great Gatsby (his masterpiece) • The Last Tycoon • Numerous short stories for The Saturday Evening Post
Final Years: • Scott continued to drink and smoke heavily • His stories about “the roaring twenties” were not as popular • He became a screenwriter in Hollywood, but found working there difficult • He had to earn large sums of money to pay for Scottie’s private schooling and for Zelda’s hospitalization for mental illness
Sheila Graham: • Scott met the beautiful writer, Sheila Graham • He moved in with her, but refused to divorce Zelda, and always proclaimed his love for Zelda • While working on The Last Tycoon, he suffered a major heart attack and died at age forty-four. • Zelda died in 1948 in a fire that swept through the insane asylum where she was being treated
Recurrent Themes: • Ambitious characters seek the American Dream • A young man desires a beautiful woman who seems too good for him • Wealth represents coldness and indifference • Money is a corrupting force • The Midwest is pure and good; the East is corrupted and bad
The Great Gatsby • Critics describe Nick Carraway as the “perfect” narrator • All major characters in the novel reveal their secrets to Nick, who reveals them to the reader • The novel is faintly autobiographical with its storyline of a poor man stopping at nothing to win the heart of a rich girl
F. Scott Fitzgerald Images: • The most famous profile among American writers:
Jay Gatsby: • Brad Pitt bears a remarkable resemblance to the young Robert Redford, who played Jay Gatsby in the 1970’s film:
The Setting for The Great Gatsby: • East Egg, the “Valley of Ashes,” and West Egg:
Famous Quotations: • “All good writing is like swimming underwater holding your breath.” • “Putting an exclamation point at the end of your own sentence is like laughing at your own joke.”
