F. Scott Fitzgerald Timeline

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edward and Mary Fitzgerald. He is named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the “Star-Spangled Banner” and is a distant relative. Fitzgerald’s father later takes a job that moves the family to New York.

The Fitzgerald family moves back to St. Paul after Fitzgerald’s father loses his job. Fitzgerald attends St. Paul Academy, and it is there that he publishes his first piece of writing, at the age of 13. The piece is a detective story published in the school newspaper.

Fitzgerald attends the Newman School, a Catholic preparatory school in Hackensack, New Jersey. He meets Father Sigourney Fay, who recognizes Fitzgerald’s literary talent and encourages him to pursue writing.

Fitzgerald enters Princeton University and writes for The Princeton Tiger, the school’s humor magazine. At Princeton he becomes a leading figure in literary life and writes scripts for the Triangle Club, a drama club at the university. He eventually flunks out, however. Although he returns to Princeton, he leaves again in November 1917 to join the army. During the summer of 1918 he is stationed near Montgomery, Alabama, and meets Zelda Sayre, daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. They become engaged, but his lack of financial stability is an issue.

Fitzgerald moves to New York City and lands a job at an advertising agency, making $90 a month. He works there for several months. After Zelda breaks off their engagement, he returns to St. Paul and works on a novel that he had been writing during his time in the army.

His first book, This Side of Paradise, is published. The novel brings him fame and money. He marries Zelda in April. They become a celebrated couple. Writer Ring Lardner describes them as the prince and princess of their generation.

Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, is published. Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection of short stories, is also published.

The Fitzgeralds, along with their daughter, Francis (called “Scottie”), who had been born in 1921, leave for France. After spending some time in Paris, the family moves to the Riviera.

While in France, Fitzgerald completes his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. After the success of this book, he writes several brilliant short stories, but eight years will pass before his next novel is published.

After The Great Gatsby is published, Fitzgerald’s drinking becomes excessive, and Zelda suffers a mental breakdown in 1930. She spends the next year in European clinics. After she is released in 1931, they move back to the United States. She has a second breakdown in 1932 from which she never fully recovers. She publishes her first and only novel, Save Me the Waltz, which is based on the Fitzgeralds’ troubled marriage.

Fitzgerald’s last completed novel, Tender Is the Night, is published. It is one of his most moving books but is commercially unsuccessful.

In 1936 Zelda enters Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1937 Fitzgerald moves to Hollywood and becomes a scriptwriter. He meets and falls in love with Sheilah Graham, a famous Hollywood gossip columnist. In 1939 he begins writing a novel about Hollywood entitled The Last Tycoon. The career of its hero, Monroe Stahr, is based on that of American film executive Irving Thalberg.

Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack in Hollywood on December 21, 1940. The Last Tycoon is published in the year after his death.