Paris Between the Wars - "F" is for F. Scott Fitzgerald
Between 1919 and 1939, Paris experienced a cultural and intellectual boom. This blog will feature artists, writers, composers, musicians, and designers. Paris was at its cultural peak.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896. He was named after his famous second cousin, the man who wrote the lyrics to our national anthem. At a prestigious Catholic prep school in New Jersey, a priest noticed his talent with the written word and encouraged him to pursue his literary ambitions. Fitzgerald honed his craft as a writer while at Princeton, but his coursework suffered as a result, and he was placed on academic probation. In 1917, he dropped out of school to join the Army.Fitzgerald was Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayre, the "golden girl," in Fitzgerald's terms, of Montgomery society. When World War I ended in 1918, Fitzgerald moved to New York City, hoping to launch a career in advertising that would be lucrative enough to convince Zelda to marry him. His book, This Side of Paradise, was accepted by Scribner's in 1919 and became an instant success, launching his career as a writer.Paris in the 1920s proved the most influential decade of Fitzgerald's development. He traveled often to Europe, mostly Paris, and became friends with many members of the American expatriate community in Paris, especially with Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald began working on his fourth novel during the late 1920s but was sidetracked by financial difficulties and by his wife's schizophrenia. Tender is the Night was finally published in 1934, but critics, who had waited nine years for the followup to The Great Gatsby, had mixed opinions about the novel. The novel did not sell well upon publication but, like the earlier Gatsby, the book's reputation has since risen significantly.An alcoholic since college, Fitzgerald became notorious during the 1920s for his extraordinarily heavy drinking, which had undermined his health by the late 1930s. He died of a heart attack in Hollywood on December 21, 1940. Fitzgerald was 44 years old.It was written in aĀ New York Times editorial after his death that Fitzgerald "was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a generation..."
