F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896–December 21,1940) was an Irish-American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer.

Early years

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota to a upper-middle class Roman Catholic family, Fitzgerald was named for his distant and famous relative Francis Scott Key, but was commonly known as 'Scott'.

Related Topics:
Saint Paul, Minnesota - Francis Scott Key

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Fitzgerald spent 1898–1901 and 1903–1908 in Buffalo, New York, where his father worked for Procter & Gamble. When Fitzgerald, Sr., was fired, the family moved back to Minnesota, where Fitzgerald attended Saint Paul Academy and Summit School in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1908–1911. He then attended Newman School, a prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1911–12. He entered Princeton University in 1913 as a member of the Class of 1917 and became friends with the future critics and writers Edmund Wilson (Class of '16) and John Peale Bishop (Class of '17). Saddled with academic difficulties throughout his three-year career at the university, Fitzgerald dropped out in 1917 to enlist in the United States Army when America entered World War I.

Related Topics:
Buffalo, New York - Procter & Gamble - Saint Paul Academy and Summit School - Saint Paul, Minnesota - Newman School - 1911 - Princeton University - 1917 - Edmund Wilson - John Peale Bishop - World War I

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Fearing he might die in the war, and determined to leave a literary legacy, Fitzgerald wrote a novel entitled The Romantic Egoist while in officer training at Camp Zachary Taylor and Camp Sheridan. When Fitzgerald submitted the novel to the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, the editor praised Fitzgerald but ultimately declined to publish.

Related Topics:
Camp Zachary Taylor - Camp Sheridan - Charles Scribner's Sons

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The war ended shortly after Fitzgerald's enlistment, and he was discharged without ever having been shipped to Europe.

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