Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)

Born 24 Sep 1896 in St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 21 Dec 1940 at age 44 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

F Scott Fitzgerald is Notable.

American short-story writer and novelist famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost as celebrated as his novels.^[1][2]

Early Life:

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24 Sep 1896 in Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, the son of Edward Fitzgerald and Mary "Molly" McQuillan. ^[3] He was named after his famous second cousin three times removed, Francis Scott Key, (who authored the United States’s national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner).

His father was a wicker furniture salesman until his business failed. He then worked for Procter & Gamble which meant that the family moved around frequently during Fitzgerald's early life. They lived mostly in Buffalo, New York. But they also moved between Syracuse, New York and West Virginia. When he was 12 years old, the family moved back to Minnesota. ^[4]

He had the following siblings:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Annabel (Fitzgerald) Sprague (b. 1901 - d. 1987) m. Vice Admiral Clifton Albert Frederick Sprague.

It is said that his mother adored him as no other ever would. He was a very intelligent and determined young man. Trying to ensure that her son would have a bright future, she sent him to two Catholic schools in Buffalo: Holy Angels Convent from 1903 to 1904 and Nardin Academy from 1905 to 1908. When they moved they enrolled him in the St. Paul Academy, where he attended from 1908 to 1911. At age thirteen, his first story, a detective tale, was printed in the school’s newspaper. In 1911, when he was fifteen, Fitzgerald’s parents sent him to a well-known Catholic preparatory school known as the Newman School, which was located in Hackensack, New Jersey. This was the same school where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who was one of the first to not only recognize and acknowledge his literary genius, but to encourage him to work on his skills. He did not solely focus on academics, but also on extracurricular activities as he was a member of the 1912 Newman football team.^[4]

After graduating from high school in 1913, he attended Princeton University. He decided to try out for the Princeton football team, but was cut after only one practice. After this, he focused on his literary career. He wrote scripts for his school’s renowned Triangle Club musicals. He was involved with the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and wrote for the Nassau Literary Magazine. At Princeton, he also became a close friend with future critics, Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. By the middle of his year at Princeton, four clubs had sent him bids, and he accepted that of the University Cottage Club. Today, his desk and writing materials can be found on display in the library called the “Big Four;” a library dedicated solely to the concept of the “gentleman.” While he was still enrolled at Princeton, he visited home in St. Paul, where he met Ginevra King; a Chicago socialite and debutante. This woman, that he quickly became infatuated with, is said to be his inspiration for Isabelle Borgé in This Side of Paradise and Daisy in The Great Gatsby.^[4]

Unfortunately, all of this extra time he was spending on his writing, his other coursework failed and he was eventually placed on academic probation. In 1917, he dropped out of the University and joined the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry. ^[5][6]When he reported for duty, he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth under the future President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, who at the time was a General of the Army. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant and was transferred to Camp Sheridan which was on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. ^[7]This city was where he met his future wife: Zelda Sayre. Eventually, the War ended in November of 1918 and he decided to relocate to New York City to further his literary career. Fitzgerald ended up quitting after a few months, returning to St. Paul.^[4]

Marriage:

Scott met his wife Zelda at a country club on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. She was the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice named Anthony D. Sayre. She followed in the footsteps of her parents and became a writer and journalist. ^[8]

The two were married American in 1920 after the publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise. Together, they had one daughter, Frances Scott Scottie Fitzgerald.

Career:

Along with writers Ernest Hemingway and T S Eliot, he was considered a member of the Lost Generation, the 1920s expatriate community in post-war Paris. ^[9] In 1925, Fitzgerald published his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, which is still widely read today.

Scott and Zelda's health deteriorated shortly after the 1925 publication of The Great Gatsby. Zelda was later institutionalized in a mental hospital.^[10] Their marriage did not survive. Scott recovered enough to work at screenwriting, but he was unsuccessful.

In 1937, he met and fell in love with Sheilah Graham, a famous Hollywood gossip columnist. ^[11]

By the 1940 census year, we find him as a 43 year old married head of household, but with no other household members present (and prior residence, Ashville, Buncombe County, North Carolina), living in Los Angeles, California.^[12]

Death and Burial:

F Scott Fitzgerald died on 21 Dec 1940 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California of a heart attack at age 44 in the middle of his last novel, The Last Tycoon. ^[13][14][15] His memorial is in Old Saint Mary's Catholic Church Cemetery, Rockville, Maryland.^[16]

His wife, Zelda Sayre died less than 10 years later in a fire at the mental hospital in Asheville where she had been institutionalized.^[17]

Sources

Wikidata: Item Q93354, en:Wikipedia

1. ↑ Gopnik, Adam. The New Yorker: A Critic at Large: As Big as the Ritz: The Mythology of the Fitzgeralds: A Century after their meeting, Scott and Zelda continue to inspire fascination - and new books. 15 Sep 2014. Accessed 29 Apr 2019.
2. ↑ Profile: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Britannica. Website accessed: 9 Jul 2023 [1]
3. ↑ "Minnesota Births and Christenings, 1840-1980," database, FamilySearch: 4 Dec 2014, Edward Fitzgerald in entry for Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, 24 Sep 1896; citing Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, reference FHL microfilm 1,309,128.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wordpress. Website accessed 11 Jul 2023 [2]
5. ↑ "United States, Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H5-33M1-M?cc=3346936 : 8 May 2023), > image 1 of 1.
6. ↑ "United States, Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H5-3S1D-P?cc=3346936 : 8 May 2023), > image 1 of 1.
7. ↑ "United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS1N-QQN2-M?cc=2968245 : 3 September 2021), > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985).
8. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch: accessed 5 Sep 2018, F Scott Fitzgerald in entry for Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, California, United States, 18 Jun 1986; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com: 2014; citing born-digital text.
9. ↑ "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch: 16 Mar 2018, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, 1921; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #20583, Passport Applications, 2 Jan 1906 - 31 Mar 1925, 1570, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration).
10. ↑ mnopedia F Scott Fitzgerald
11. ↑ Britannica Biography: F Scott Fitzgerald
12. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch: accessed 5 Sep 2018, F Scott Fitzgerald, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district 60-58, sheet 10A, line 16, family 269, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 376.
13. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9SV-C9Z1-D?i=725
14. ↑ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch: 26 Nov 2014, F Scott Fitzgerald, 21 Dec 1940; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
15. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch: accessed 5 Sep 2018, F Scott Fitzgerald, California, United States, 21 Dec 1990; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com: 2014; citing San Francisco Chronicle, born-digital text.
16. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #344.
17. ↑ "North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994," database, FamilySearch: 2 Jul 2015, Francis Scott Fitzgerald in entry for Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, 10 Mar 1948; citing Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina, v 4B cn 4670, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,926,630.

See also:

• F Scott Fitzgerald
• Tate, Mary Jo. "Critical Companion to F Scott Fitzgerald". 2007, p. 298. Infobase Publishing.
• Cresap, Joseph Ord, and Cresap, Bernarr, comps. The History of the Cresaps. (The Cresap Society, McComb, Mississippi, 1937). Page 451.