F. Scott Fitzgerald - (1896-1940)
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
Read another essay on F. Scott Fitzgerald written by California student
Cindy Hernandez.Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on
September 24, 1896. The dominant influences on Fitzgerald and his literary work were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol. His father, Edward, was from
Maryland, with an allegiance to the Old South and its values. His mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul. After his father was
dismissed from his position as a salesman in New York, the family moved back to St. Paul where they lived under his mother's inheritance. Francis Scott Key is the namesake and
second cousin three times removed of the author of the National Anthem. I. Biography Shortly after Fitzgerald's birth the family moved to New York. After his father was
dismissed the family returned to St. Paul where Fitzgerald attended the St. Paul Academy; his first writing to appear in print was a detective story in the school newspaper when he
was thirteen. During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School in New Jersey. He attended Princeton University but neglected his studies for his apprenticeship and instead
began writing short stories scripts, and lyrics for musicals. Unlikely to graduate he joined the army in 1917. He was assigned to Alabama where he met his future wife, Zelda.
Seeking fortune to marry he began a life-long career as a writer of stories for mass-circulation magazines, notably The Saturday Evening Post. In 1920, This Side of Paradise
was finally published and won him almost overnight fame. A week later he married Zelda. In New York City he wrote his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned. In 1922 he created the play called
The Vegetable. In 1924 they went to France where he wrote his most notable novel, The Great Gatsby. In 1934 his fourth novel, Tender Is the Night,
was published. Meanwhile he had become an alcoholic and his wife suffered from mental breakdowns and her treatment required him to write for money. He moved to Hollywood
where he wrote movie scripts and died of a heart attack, only completing half of a working draft for his latest novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon. II. Literary Works The Love of the Last Tycoon
(1941), was his last and unfinished novel. In it he drew upon his own Hollywood experiences to tell the story of a brilliant film producer, allegedly
modeled on Irving Thalberg. The producer falls in love with a woman who looks like his deceased wife. She, after keeping a distance from him, runs off and gets married.
Meanwhile the narrator is in love with the producer and at the end of the novel they are wed. This book, although not as notable as The Great Gatsby, has received a reputation as one of Hollywood's best novels.
Tender is the Night (1934), his fourth novel, was his most ambitious work but turned out being a commercial failure due to matters of critical dispute. Set in France during the 1920's
the novel examines the deterioration of Dick Diver, a brilliant American psychiatrist, during the course of his marriage to a wealthy mental patient. The Great Gatsby
(1925) is Fitzgerald's most notable novel. It is a story of Long Island and New York. The central character, Gatsby, is a wealthy American of humble background
who feigns distinguished European lineage. The people who surround him are a noisy, fast-living crowd who represent a colorful type during Prohibition days in the United
States. The novel marked a striking advance in his technique. His achievement received critical praise, but sales were disappointing. The Beautiful and Damned
(1922) is a savage and haunting satire of the young, rootless post-war generation who live intent only on the pursuit of wealth and decadent pleasure.
Anthony Patch's marriage to the beautiful but selfish Gloria is idyllic at first but the union slowly disintegrates as reality sets in and their goal becomes Adam Patch's fortune. Gloria's
beauty fades, and Anthony's drinking takes its toll. Charting the corrosive attraction of wealth and its malign influence, The Beautiful and Damned is also a vivid portrait of early
twentieth-century New York and the sights and sounds of the city's burgeoning nightlife. This Side of Paradise (1920), Fitzgerald's first novel, was an immediate success and
became one of the famous novels of the 1920's. Set mainly at Princeton and described by its author as "a quest novel," This Side of Paradise traces the career aspirations and love
disappointments of Amory Blaine. It is a story of the postwar generation who became characterized as "flaming youth" and "the lost generation."
Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories, essays, lyrics and plays including "Flappers and Philosophers," "Babylon Revisited and Other Stories," and The Vegetable.
III. Hollywood, California and Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald Although he was not born in California, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood in 1937, and remained there until his death in 1940. In his story,
The Last Tycoon, he mentions many well-known places throughout Southern California. Here are just a few places from Fitzgerald's novel, which you might remember: Paramount Studios:
Paramount studios is the location where Paramount Pictures does the majority of the filming for their movies. The studio is mentioned throughout the novel
because it is where Monroe Stahr works. Today the studios are located in North Hollywood on Melrose Avenue Malibu: This wealthy community is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and is just
north of Santa Monica. It is generally a residential area that is mentioned in the novel for its negative attitude towards movies. Santa Monica: This coastal city
lies just west of Hollywood. The pier there contains a small amusement park, most famous for the Ferris wheel on the very end of the pier. Today, the
community is also well known for its outdoor shopping center commonly known as "Third Street Promenade." This shopping center offers not only high-class stores but also terrific
dining and entertainment ranging from well-known bands to amateur break-dancers. In the novel Santa Monica is the site of Monroe Stahr's new home where he and Kathleen have a
brief love affair. The Santa Monica beach is also the location where the two of them observe the running of the grunion. IV. Literary Works This Side of Paradise (1920) V. Comments By Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
Many interviews with Fitzgerald have been recorded and are available at the Centenary website. In a letter to Edmund Wilson dated November 25, 1940 Fitzgerald revealed his feelings about The Last Tycoon
, his latest novel. He stated: "I think my novel is good. I've written it with difficulty. It is completely upstream in mood
and will get a certain amount of abuse but it is first hand and I am trying a little harder than I ever have to be exact and honest emotionally. I honestly hoped somebody else would write it but nobody seems to be going to."
VI. Fitzgerald on the Web VII. Sources
F Scott Fitzgerald Centenary website This essay was submitted by students of Grant Farley, a teacher at San Pedro High School
in San Pedro, California.
Flappers and Philosophers (1920)
The Beautiful and Damned (1921)
Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
The Vegetable; or, From President to Postman (1923)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
All the Sad Young Men (1926)
Tender Is the Night (1934)
Taps at Revielle (1935)
The Crack-Up (1936)
The Last Tycoon (1941)
Amazon.com: A glance: The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western
The Encyclopedia Americana 1956
World book Encyclopedia 1999
Webster's New World Encyclopedia
1993
The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western, ed. Bruccoli. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.