Sep 24, 2024
F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, is one of the most famous and celebrated American authors. He wrote about the ‘roaring era’ of 1920s America, the Jazz Age, the ills of love and longing, and his most iconic ‘The American Dream’.
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F Scott Fitzgerald is said to be from a middle-class family, and his financial conditions were not the best. But, his love for writing was developed when he studied at Princeton, and then shortly after publishing his first text, he went to serve time in the military.
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Fitzgerald and Zelda had a love marriage, and they were both head over heels for each other for the first few years of their marriage. But in the later years, their relationship grew turbulent with Fitzgerald’s alcohol problem.
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One of Fitzgerald’s most famous texts is ‘The Great Gatsby’. The novel has the themes of wealth, love, the American Dream, the ills of wealth and excesses, and the degeneration that was brought forward by it all.
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‘This Side of Paradise’ was Fitzgerald’s debut novel that was released in 1920. It is a semi-autobiographical novel about a young man, Amory Blaine, who is going through troubles in love, life, and more, and is in search of his real identity.
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This book is said to be a reflection of Fitzgerald’s love life and marriage. It features Anthony and Gloria Patch, a couple whose indulgence in wealth and luxury leads to their downfall.
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‘Tender is the Night’ features Dick and Nicole Diver, a couple whose perfect life in the French Riviera grows troubled and tumultuous due to Nicole's mental illness and Dick’s increasing dependence on alcohol.
Simon-Schuster
If there was something that Fitzgerald loved more than himself and Zelda, then it was booze. ‘On Booze’ is Fitzgerald’s complicated relationship with drinking, his struggle with alcohol, and how it impacted his talent and writing.
Picador
Fitzgerald’s drinking worsened over the years. His obsession with drinking became like a recluse from his failing career and strained his relationship with Zelda, the love he won. And with alcoholism also came financial struggles, gambling, and depression.
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Owing to his alcoholism and the mental illnesses that followed, during his later years, Fitzgerald was mostly alone in life. Zelda was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and died even before Fitzgerald. On 21 December 1940, he died aged 44.
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One of the most iconic quotes by Fitzgerald remains to be - “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
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