F.+Scott+Fitzgerald


 * Fact Sheet: F. Scott Fitzgerald**

__Personal Background:__ (Avril) · Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. · His father, Edward, was from Maryland. Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale · They lived comfortably on Mollie Fitzgerald’s inheritance. · First writing to appear in print was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen. · As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. · On academic probation and unlikely to graduate, Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. · In June 1918 Fitzgerald fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre · Unwilling to wait while Fitzgerald succeeded in the advertisement business and unwilling to live on his small salary, Zelda Sayre broke their engagement. · The publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. · He was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda Fitzgerald regularly got “tight,” but she was not an alcoholic. · In Paris Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway, whom he formed a friendship based largely on his admiration for Hemingway’s personality and genius. · Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald did spend money faster than he earned it; the author who wrote so eloquently about the effects of money on character was unable to manage his own finances. · Zelda suffered several breakdowns in both her physical and mental health, 1930 until her death (due to a fire at Highland Hospital in North Carolina in 1948 · Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was a stocky, good-looking young man with blond hair and blue eyes who might have stepped from the gay pages of one of his own novels  · F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. The obituaries were condescending, and he seemed destined for literary obscurity.



__What Influenced His Writing:__ (Avril) "The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol."

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 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.

While Fitzgerald was absorbed writing __The Great Gatsby__, Zelda became infatuated with a dashing young French pilot, Edouard Jozan. She spent afternoons swimming at the beach and evenings dancing at the casinos with Jozan. After six weeks, Zelda asked for a divorce. Scott at first demanded to confront Jozan, but instead dealt with Zelda's demand by locking her in their house, until she abandoned her request for divorce

Scott recorded Zelda saying, "Oh, God, goofo I'm drunk. Mark Twain. Isn't she smart—she has the hiccups. I hope it's beautiful and a fool—a beautiful little fool". Many of her words found their way into Scott's novels; in __The Great Gatsby__, the character Daisy Buchanan expresses the same hope for her daughter.

The Fitzgeralds enjoyed fame and fortune, and his novels reflected their lifestyle, describing in semi-autobiographical fiction the privileged lives of wealthy, aspiring socialites.

**Bibliography** **:** Bruccoli, Matthew J. "A Brief Life of Fitzgerald." University of South Carolina. Simon & Schuster. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Chagollan, Steve. "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times -Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. New York Times. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Crain, Caleb. "Scott Fitzgerald Was Different." New York Times 24 Dec. 2000. New York Times. New York Times. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Kakutani, Michiko. "Books of The Times - Troubled Life and Times On This Side of Paradise - Biography; Review - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 15 Apr. 1994. Web.12 Sept. 2010. .

The New York Times, comp. "Scott Fitzgerald, Author, Dies at 44." New York Times 23 Dec. 1940: 2B. Print.

__Literary Contributions and Quotations from Significant Works:__ (Daisy) F. Scott Fitzgerald Completed 4 novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night and over 160 short stories, but his fifth novel The Last Tycoon was several chapters shy of finishing.

**//*This Side of Paradise (1920)//** The story follows Amory Blain, a student in Princeton, into the disillusioned and glittering world of the lost generation. The novel was published in 1920s, it was a success and it won Fitzgerald fame, wealth and his wife Zelda, where the two wed a week after the publication. "It's essentially cleaner to be corrupt and rich than it is to be innocent and poor." -Amory Blaine “It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.” “The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we've forgotten there’s any other way.” //***The Beautiful and Damned (1922)**// Fitzgerald explores the corruptive influences of money through the history of Gloria and Anthony Patch, a wealthy and attractive couple. “The victor belongs to the spoils” **//*The Great Gatsby (1925)//** The most famous novel by Fitzgerald **//*Tender Is the Night (1934)//** Set in Europe, Tender Is the Night tells the story of a brilliant American Psychiatrist Dick Diver and his marriage to a wealthy mental patient. “Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.” **//*The Last Tycoon (1941)//** A story on the Hollywood motion picture industry where Monroe Starh, a movie producer struggle between artistic integrity and the money-obsessed influences in Hollywood. “What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story”

Major Short Stories **//The Offshore Pirate (1920)//** A spoiled young woman named Ardita Farnan is on a trip to Florida with her uncle when their ship was capture by ‘pirates’ and she falls in love with their captain. "All life is just a progression toward, and then a recession from, one phrase -- I love you."

**//The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921)//** The movie differs greatly to the original short story where only the aging process and the name of the main character remain the same. **//Babylon Revisited (1931)//** An autobiographical story where it follows a recovery alcoholic’s journey to retrieve the custody over his child.

**Bibliography** "F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. 2010. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

"F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes." Notable Quotes. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

"Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 1920. This Side of Paradise." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. 2010. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Johnson, Elizabeth Downing. 6. The Offshore Pirate. Digital image. Toptenz.net. 18 May 2009. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Johnson, Elizabeth Downing. "Top 10 Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald | Top 10 Lists | TopTenz.net." Top 10 Lists - Top Ten Lists - TopTenz.net. 18 May 2009. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

Liukkonen, Petri, and Ari Pesonen. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. 2008. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. . Moncur, Michael. "Quotation Search - Quote Search - The Quotations Page." The Quotations Page - Your Source for Famous Quotes. 2010. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

"This Side of Paradise Quotes - Litquotes." Quotes from Literature - LitQuotes. 2010. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

__Time Period/Historical Era:__ (Evan)

- The Jazz Age, also known as the 'Golden Twenties' or the 'Roaring Twenties' was characterized by a 'loosening up' of society through the younger generation.

 * ===== Examples of this are: =====
 * ===== Explosion of Jazz genre and its 'provocative' dances such as the Charleston. =====
 * ===== Female fashion- women started bobbing hair and wore gowns that ended above the knees, both were considered socially unacceptable; these women were known as flappers.[[image:http://www.ac.wwu.edu/%7Eswing/Graphics/charleston.jpg width="272" height="166" align="right"]] =====
 * ===== The younger generation participated in "all-night parties, drove motor cars, smoked in public, and held hands with men without wearing gloves." =====

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-Prohibition, the constitutional ban of alcohol in the United States began in 1920 and lasted until 1933. Ironically Fitzgerald was considered an alcoholic and alcohol was a major theme in his writing. =====

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-The Great Depression, usually considered to begin in the United States on 'Black Tuesday' Oct. 29, 1929 and last up into World War II, coincides with the disintegration of Fitzgerald's life and relationship with Zelda. =====

-Fitzgerald is considered one of many to embody the spirit of the Twenties, he was a literary icon.

 * Artists/Entertainers, such as Charlie Chaplin, Louis Armstrong, and Babe Ruth, were recognized as celebrities more than ever before, this helped to thrust Fitzgerald into the spotlight.

__What is their influence on the world:__ (Evan) -When Fitzgerald died in 1940, he was considered a failure, "The promise of his brilliant career was never fulfilled." Despite his early success he had fallen from grace. -Work revitalized, when The Great Gatsby, originally a commercial disaster, was circulated among World War II soldiers. -Fitzgerald's work influenced other authors, among them J.D. Salinger whose writings were often compared to those of Fitzgerald. -The F. Scott Fitzgerald Award is given annually by the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference for achievement in American Literature. -Numerous TV and film adaptions of Fitzgerald's works and life have been made.
 * Epitomized generation, his life mirrored the prosperity and excess of the Twenties and then fell into chaos as did American society in the Depression.
 * Seemed promise to fade away as an echo of a bygone era.
 * Fitzgerald's writing, often described as depictions of "all the sad young men", appealed to this audience; Nick, Gatsby, and Fitzgerald himself were all soldiers in the first world war.
 * The reprints brought Fitzgerald back into literary acclaim.
 * The most recent mainstream adaption was __The Curious Case of Benjamin Button__ based on a Fitzgerald short story.[[image:http://www.assumption.lib.la.us/images/1a2052f39a324fcd2689b98167369e69.jpg width="235" height="328" align="right"]]
 * A biographical film of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald is in pre-production, currently entitled __The Beautiful and the Damned__ after Fitzgerald's second novel. Numerous biographical adaptions of Fitzgerald's life have been made for stage and screen.
 * Several adaptions of __The Great Gatsby__ have been made, including the 1974 version. Despite being adapted by Francis Ford Coppola (Godfather) and featuring stars Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, the film failed to achieve critical acclaim equal to that of the novel.

Bruccoli, Matthew J. "A Brief Life of Fitzgerald." University of South Carolina.Simon & Schuster. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. .

"The Jazz Age." //History Learning Site//. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk, 2010. Web. 12 Sep 2010. .

"The Influence of F. Scott Fitzgerald on American Literature." //Writinghood//. "Mr. E" (Site Alias), 18 Apr 2009. Web. 13 Sep 2010. .

"F. Scott Fitzgerald." //The New York Times//. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 13 Sep 2010. <http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/ timestopics/people/f/f_scott_fitzgerald /index.html>.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference." //F. Scott// //Fitzgerald Literary Conference//. F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc., 19 Aug 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2010. <http://fscottfitzgerald.wordpress.com/>.

"The Great Gatsby (1974)." //The Internet Movie// //Database//. IMDb.com, Inc., 2010. Web. 13 Sep 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071577/>.

"The Beautiful and the Damned (2011)." //The Internet// //Movie Database//. IMDb.com, Inc., 2010. Web. 13 Sep 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/title /tt1181615/>.