F. Scott Fitzgerald Inspirations and biography

Fitzgerald, a failed furniture salesman and Mary McQuilan. Fitzgerald was raised a

catholic in an upper middle class environment.

Fitzgerald started writing from a young age and had several stories published in his

He joined Princeton university for a short time but then dropped out and joined the

army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Around the same time he

began writing and submitting stories to magazines. While in the army, Fitzgerald wrote

The Romantic Egotist (later to be published as This Side of Paradise) and was

In 1918, Fitzgerald traveled to camp Sheridan, Alabama where he fell in love with

Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of a supreme court judge.

The war ended in 1919, just before Fitzgerald was to travel overseas to fight. It was at

this point that Zelda broke off their engagement because she was unwilling to live on

Fitzgerald then moved back to Minnesota where he returned to again write This Side of

Paradise. He resubmitted the novel to Charles Scribner’s and Sons and it was

In 1939, Fitzgerald started writing The Last Tycoon, a story about Hollywood.

Many of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels are semi - autobiographical and he uses his own lifestyle and experiences to shape the plot of his novels and to craft his characters. Fitzgerald’s main inspirations were his wife and his relationship with his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, alcohol and it’s influences, wealth and its corruption, the wealthy lifestyle and the 1920’s.

In Fitzgerald’s novels, he effectively mocks the ‘American Dream’ of the 1920’s.That is to become rich and famous and to find true love. Many of the upper class people that attended the same parties as Fitzgerald inspired him to write about the American Dream and how unsatisfying it can be. The high class Americans of the 1920’s inspired Fitzgerald to write of characters such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby who does find wealth in his life and achieves the ‘American Dream’ but to him it is hollow and empty. He finds his true love, Daisy Fay Buchanan and ignores her vices, such as treating her child as though it is a toy and being a shallow and superficial human being. Fitzgerald seems to be saying that the American dream is not so important to achieve as it leaves those who achieve it wanting and never fulfills their desires.

At the same time as writing his novels, Fitzgerald was prolific as a magazine story

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