FScottFitzgerald.pptVIP

* F. Scott Fitzgerald By Lynn Fitzgerald was one of the best known American authors of the 1920s and 30s and is closely associated with the optimism and excesses of that eras Jazz Age. Fitzgeralds stories often featured people like himself: middle-American types infatuated with the wealth and status of upper-crust society. In the mid-1920s he lived in Paris where he was friends with Ernest Hemingway and other literary expatriates. Fitzgerald was a popular celebrity of the day and he and his wife, Zelda, became famous for their extravagant lifestyle, drinking bouts and (eventually) erratic behavior. His major published novels include This Side of Paradise (1920), The Great Gatsby (1925), and Tender Is the Night (1934). F. Scott Fitzgeralds life is a tragic example of both sides of the American Dream the joys of young love, wealth and success, and the tragedies associated with excess and failure. Named for another famous American, a distant cousin who authored The Star Spangled Banner, Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 24, 1896. The son of a failed wicker furniture salesman (Edward Fitzgerald) and an Irish immigrant with a large inheritance (Mary Mollie McQuillan), Fitzgerald grew up in a solidly Catholic and upper middle class environment. Fitzgerald started writing at an early age. His high school newspaper published his detective stories, encouraging him to pursue writing more enthusiastically than academics. He dropped out of Princeton University to join the army and continued to pursue his obsession, writing magazine articles and even musical lyrics. At 21 years of age, he submitted his first novel for publication and Charles Scribners Sons rejected it, but with words of encouragement. Beginning a pattern of constant revising that would characterize his writing style for the rest of his career, Fitzgerald decided to rewrite The Romantic Egoist and resubmit it for publication. Meanwhile, fate, in the form of the U.S. army, stationed him n