“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer and screenwriter. He was best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age — a term he popularized to convey the post-World War I era’s newfound prosperity, consumerism, and shifting sexual mores.

During his lifetime, he published four novels, four collections of short stories and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. He is best known for - The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender Is the Night (1934)—two keystones of modernist fiction.

Fitzgerald’s nonfiction is also considered a major part of his oeuvre. Although Fitzgerald will remain best known for the elegiac melancholy of The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night, his short fiction reveals that he was as adept at comedy and fantasy as at tragedy—a testament to the breadth and range of his talent.

Fitzgerald’s main themes are ambition and loss, discipline vs. self-indulgence, love and romance, and money and class. Much like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, his work is instantly recognizable due to its distinctive prose style.

Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I.

Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army amid World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he romanced Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.

His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now widely praised, with some literary critics labeling it as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).

Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works amid the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson completed and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death.

As one of the leading authorial voices of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald's literary style influenced a number of contemporary and future writers.
Fitzgerald's stories and novels have been adapted into a variety of media formats. 

Discussion Questions :

What all books by F.S. Fitzgerald have you read/you plan to read? What are your thoughts about his works? 

The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and is memorable for the rich symbolism in the story. It is called the Classic of Illusions and Delusions. People keep re-reading the book only to find and feel something new each time. What is your favourite part in the story? Who is your favourite character?

Have you read any other book depicting the American Dream? Tell us about it.

Always open to additional comments and discussions on F. Scott Fitzgerald and his works.

If there is another author you would like to see a discussion on, please post your suggestion in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!

Resources:
Wikipedia: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Goodreads : F. Scott Fitzgerald