F. Scott Fitzgerald Timeline

One week after the publication of his first novel, Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The couple became celebrities of the Jazz Age, known for their glamorous and extravagant lifestyle.

Image source: Zelda Fitzgerald

Scottie Fitzgerald, the only child of Scott and Zelda, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. She later became a writer and journalist herself, and her parents' turbulent marriage profoundly shaped her life.

Image source: Frances Scott Fitzgerald

Seeking quiet to write and escape mounting debts, the Fitzgeralds moved to France, settling on the French Riviera. There they befriended Gerald and Sara Murphy and later Ernest Hemingway, becoming part of the expatriate Lost Generation.

Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway at the Dingo Bar in Paris shortly after 'Gatsby' was published. He championed Hemingway's work to his editor Maxwell Perkins, though their friendship was later strained by rivalry and personal tensions.

Image source: Ernest Hemingway

Zelda suffered her first nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, entering a clinic in Switzerland. She spent much of the following decade in and out of sanatoriums, straining the family emotionally and financially.

Exhausted by Zelda's illness and his own drinking, Fitzgerald suffered a breakdown and stayed at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. Esquire magazine published his confessional 'Crack-Up' essays during this low point in his career.

In Hollywood, Fitzgerald began a relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham that lasted until his death. She supported him through his final years as he struggled with debt, alcoholism, and his unfinished novel.

Image source: Sheilah Graham

Deeply in debt, Fitzgerald signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and moved to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter. He contributed to films including 'Three Comrades' (1938) and worked uncredited on others, finding studio work creatively frustrating.

Fitzgerald signed a six-month contract with MGM worth $1,000 per week, a substantial sum that helped him pay down his debts. His most notable credited screenplay was 'Three Comrades,' though much of his work went unused or uncredited.

Image source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Fitzgerald traveled to Dartmouth College to work on the screenplay for 'Winter Carnival' with Budd Schulberg, but he was fired after disappearing on a drinking binge—an episode Schulberg later fictionalized in 'The Disenchanted.'

Image source: Quebec Winter Carnival

Fitzgerald suffered a mild heart attack in November 1940 while at Schwab's Drug Store. Warned by doctors to avoid exertion, he continued working on 'The Last Tycoon' despite declining health.

F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a massive heart attack at Sheilah Graham's apartment in Hollywood, believing himself a failure. At the time of his death, his books were largely out of print, and he had sold fewer than 25,000 copies of 'Gatsby' in his lifetime.

Edmund Wilson edited and published Fitzgerald's unfinished Hollywood novel 'The Last Tycoon' a year after his death, along with selected stories and essays. The book received respectful reviews and helped begin the revival of interest in his work.

Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, where she was undergoing treatment. She was locked in a room awaiting electroshock therapy when the blaze broke out, killing eight patients.

During the 1950s, Fitzgerald's reputation soared as critics and scholars reevaluated his work. 'The Great Gatsby' came to be seen as a masterpiece of American literature, and by the 1960s he was firmly established as one of the nation's greatest writers.