Francis Scott Fitzgerald short biography. Alcogeny: Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Life on both sides of paradise
, ... They lived and worked at different times, but in the books of these writers one can feel the same spirit, national flavor and something else elusive, but uniting. Perhaps the most strongly described feelings are the works of the recognized American classic Francis Scott Fitzgerald.
Childhood and youth
Francis was born into a family of immigrants from Ireland. His maternal grandfather Philip McKillan, having emigrated to the United States, managed to get on his feet in a new country and get rich. But Edward Fitzgerald, the father of the future writer, who fled from the same Ireland, failed to achieve the same results. Edward barely made ends meet, so when Molly McKillan brought her future husband to her parents, they tried in every possible way to dissuade the girl from such an unreliable gentleman.
In the end, Edward and Molly played the wedding, because the old man MacKillan had to come to terms with this and at first help the newly-made family. Later, the Fitzgeralds started a business and were able to provide for themselves.
The only problem that tormented the young family was the death of the first two children. Therefore, the couple was incredibly happy when, on September 24, 1896, the long-awaited son was born. It was decided to name the boy Francis Scott.
Since Francis and his sister Louise were members of a Catholic family, the children received their primary education in Catholic schools. The boy graduated from the Academy of St. Paul (Saint Paul Academy), located in his native state of Minnesota.
Young Fitzgerald continued his studies at The Newman School, located in Massachusetts. While studying at the Newman School, Francis devoted his free time to self-education.
After graduating from a private school, the guy moved to New Jersey to enter Princeton University (Princeton University). As a student at a prestigious university, Fitzgerald thought about a career as a writer and screenwriter of comedy musicals. Francis participated in literary competitions, but did not forget to keep an eye on his physical form: Fitzgerald got into the university football team in his freshman year.
However, the guy did not graduate from the university. Instead, in 1917 he volunteered for the army, where, by the way, he managed to build a career, rising to the rank of adjutant commander of an infantry brigade.
In 1919, Fitzgerald left the military. The guy was planning a wedding with Zelda Sayre, a beautiful girl from a respected family from Alabama. But this marriage was prevented by Zelda's parents, believing that it was not worth giving their daughter to a guy who had just returned from the army and did not have a stable income. This is certainly a spiral of fate - to repeat an episode from the fate of the father and mother!
Francis Scott decided that if he became a famous writer, then the girl's parents would change their minds. Fitzgerald moved to New York, where he began to earn a living working as an advertising agent, and in his spare time writing his debut novel.
Literature
Francis sent the finished manuscript of The Romantic Egoist to the main publishing houses in New York, but received only refusals in response. It was a big blow for the guy. He started drinking and then quit his job. Left without a livelihood, he returned to his parents' house.
After recovering a little, Fitzgerald decides to correct the manuscript, which leads to its rewriting from scratch. The novice novelist again sends out a new copy to publishers. From Charles Scribner's Son comes a letter signed by editor-in-chief Maxwell Perkins. In it, the editor-in-chief reports that Francis's work is very different from everything that is being published now. But the publishing house is ready to take the risk and release the book, because they believe in its success.
On March 26, 1920, the rewritten "Romantic Egoist" appears in Charles Scribner's Son under the title "This Side of Paradise". The book becomes a bestseller (in those years this word was not yet used, but today the effect of the sale of the novel would be called that), the author is famous, and Zelda Sayre is Fitzgerald's bride.
Francis then wrote stories for almanacs and popular magazines, later these stories would be published in his first collection, Emancipated and Thoughtful. In May 1922, Collier's Weekly published the story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", which further strengthened Fitzgerald's position as the author of a new generation - the generation of jazz.
Despite the birth of their daughter, Francis and Zelda begin to lead a chic lifestyle and become the heroes of gossip columns. All their performances are truly distinguished by their scope and ostentation. In 1922, the Fitzgeralds acquire a new mansion in Manhattan. It was there that the writer begins work on The Great Gatsby.
At the same time, Francis publishes his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, sells the rights to its film adaptation to William A. Cyter, and then releases the Jazz Age Tales collection and the play The Muff.
In 1924, Fitzgerald decides to go to Europe. During his journey, he manages to make new acquaintances, as well as make friends with, who lived at that time in Paris. In America, at this time, Francis's third novel, The Great Gatsby, was released, as well as his film production, filmed by Herbert Brenon.
Returning to his homeland, the writer published another collection, which was called "All these sad young people", after which a black streak begins in Fitzgerald's life. The beginning is considered to be a clouding of the mind of his wife and the beginning of the development of schizophrenia in her. Zelda can't be cured. Francis again became addicted to alcohol, which leads to a creative crisis.
In 1934, unexpectedly for everyone, a new novel by the writer, Tender is the Night, based on his own biography, was published.
Later, Fitzgerald decides to change the vector of action and becomes a Hollywood director. With his participation, many tapes of those years were released, but the most notorious successes were Frank Borzeiga's Three Comrades based on the novel and George Cukor's Women. Ironically, none of these films have the writer's name listed in the credits.
In 1939, Fitzgerald begins work on The Last Tycoon, a novel about Hollywood behind the scenes. This novel will be published posthumously, as well as the collections "The Downfall" and "The Costs of Good Education".
Fitzgerald was able to convey the spirit of that time as much as possible. This led to the appearance of numerous adaptations of his books. Notables include The Great Gatsby (1974) by Jack Clayton with and , The Last Tycoon (1976) by Elia Kazana with , The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) with and , and The Great Gatsby (2013) by Baz Luhrmann with a whole galaxy of outstanding actors -,
Personal life
Fitzgerald was married to Zelda Sayre from 1920 to 1940. On October 26, 1921, the couple had a daughter, Frances.
After his divorce from Zelda, Fitzgerald briefly dated a Hollywood news reporter for major publications. Francis' new darling was called Sheila Graham. Together they lived a little, the reason for this was the death of the writer.
Death of Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The official cause of death is a heart attack, but friends and acquaintances assured that in fact Francis died due to excessive drinking, which he indulged in after his divorce from Zelda.
Bibliography
- 1920 - "This Side of Paradise"
- 1922 - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
- 1922 - The Beautiful and the Damned
- 1923 - "Tales of the Jazz Age"
- 1925 - The Great Gatsby
- 1926 - "All these sad young people"
- 1934 - Tender is the Night
- 1935 - "Wake up signals"
- 1941 - "The Last Tycoon"
- 1945 - "Crash"
Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre met in 1918 in the small town of Montgomery, Alabama. The fateful meeting took place in one of the city bars. Scott Fitzgerald, then a second lieutenant in the 67th Infantry, was led here by a desire to have another fun evening with his colleagues. Zelda, the first beauty of the state, was, as usual, surrounded by numerous admirers.
Fitzgerald fell in love at first sight. “The most beautiful girl I have ever met in my life,” he later recalled. “I immediately realized: she just has to be mine!” Zelda's first impression of the meeting was not so strong, but still something in the young man hooked her and forced her to distract herself from the admirers surrounding her from all sides. According to her, it then seemed to her that "some unearthly force, some kind of inspired delight attracted him upward."
Zelda Sayre turned 18 that year. She was the sixth and last child in the family. Pampered by the caress of her mother and her father's money, protected from all adversity by the influence of her surname (the girl's father was a state judge), Zelda led the life of a typical representative of golden youth - she studied ballet, painted, and spent her free time at parties.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, being four years older than his beloved, by the time they met, had nothing in his soul but immense ambitions and addiction to alcohol.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, 1921. (wikimedia.org)
Of course, Zelda's parents understood that such a candidate for their daughter's husband was not suitable. But what will you do for the sake of your beloved child ?! The wedding was approved on one condition - Francis must immediately find a decent job.
The happy groom immediately rushed to New York and got a job in an advertising agency at the city railroad. In the same place, he made an attempt to print his first novel, The Romantic Egoist, but the manuscript was returned to him with the note “finalize”. The failures of the aspiring writer were accompanied by the growing danger of losing Zelda. Left alone in Montgomery, bound to Francis only by a promise and a ring received from him as a gift, she did not stop flirting and having affairs with other men. One day she was so carried away by a certain golfer that she went with him to a tournament in Atlanta. In parting, this player gave her the most expensive thing he had - a pin with the emblem of his college. Zelda, having arrived home and changed her mind, decided to return this pin to him with a note that she could not accept it. But out of absent-mindedness (or habit) I wrote Scott's New York address on the envelope.
Zelda Sayre's parents were against their daughter's marriage to Fitzgerald
Enraged and filled with fear of losing his love, he immediately came to her and demanded an explanation. Zelda didn't explain anything, she just took the ring Francis had given her off her finger and threw it in his face. The gesture spoke eloquently for itself. The rejected Fitzgerald returned to New York, but was not going to give up.
King and Queen of the Jazz Age. (wikimedia.org)
Meanwhile, Zelda spent the entire summer of 1919 at balls and in swimming pools. She became even more attractive and liberated. When one day it seemed to her that it was inconvenient to dive in a bathing suit, she simply took it off and jumped naked from the tower. Montgomery's men were willing to bet that no girl in the history of the state had done anything like it, and they hurried to join the ranks of her admirers. However, when, after five months of stoic silence, a letter arrived from Scott in which he wrote that he still loved her and would like to come to Montgomery for the sole purpose of seeing her, Zelda replied immediately: “Of course, come! I am insanely glad that we will meet, and I want this madly, which you must know about!
In early 1920, Fitzgerald was struck by happiness. The novel he rewrote with the new title "On the Other Side of Paradise" finally reached the readers and made its author famous in an instant. A week later, Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre were married.
Writer with family. (wikimedia.org)
“A generation has come,” Fitzgerald wrote, “for which all gods have died, all wars have died down, all faith has been undermined, and only fear of the future and worship of success remain.” With this generation came the crazy "age of jazz", and the Fitzgeralds became its personification. Newspaper columns were read only thanks to the antics of Zelda and Scott. Today they ride on the roof of a taxi, tomorrow they go to the theater naked, the day after tomorrow they disappear altogether, and a few days later they are found in a cheap hotel far out of town. All of America lived the life of its idols, condemned them and admired them.
Even the birth of little Scotty, named after her father, did not stop this carousel. Evil tongues claimed that Zelda was brought to the hospital drunk. The first thing she said, moving away from anesthesia: “I think I'm drunk ... And what about our baby? I hope she is beautiful and stupid ... ".
The Fitzgeralds were called the king and queen of the Jazz Age.
True, at times Fitzgerald was fed up with this lifestyle, and he was drawn to routine writing, especially when publishers began to return his manuscripts as unusable or paid less than before. But, as if jealous of her husband for his work and fame, Zelda again and again returned him to a carefree life. “Our passion, tenderness and spiritual fervor, everything that can grow, grows - with the belief that their holiday will never end,” she wrote. “And as we grow older and wiser and build our castle of love on a solid foundation, we have lost nothing. The first impulse cannot last forever, but the feelings generated by it are still so alive. They are like soap bubbles: they burst, but you can inflate many more beautiful bubbles ...
Writer with daughter, 1928. (wikimedia.org)
And yet, from time to time, these bubbles burst not so beautifully. One day, Zelda was carried away, and in front of Scott, by a young French pilot Edouard Jozan (who, distraught with love for her, even performed aerobatics right above their house). The novel did not last long and did not threaten the marriage in any way, but the threat to the life of the excessively impressionable Zelda nevertheless arose. When the pilot suddenly abandoned his beloved, she drank sleeping pills and survived only because Francis found her in time.
In August 1925, the whole of Paris spoke about the state of Zelda's psyche - just after she threw herself down the stairs in one of the famous restaurants. During dinner, Fitzgerald noticed Isadora Duncan herself at the next table and asked permission from his wife to express his admiration for the great dancer. Zelda agreed, but as soon as Scott left the table, she got up, went to the stairs leading to the second floor, reached the middle - and rushed down. Everyone was sure that she died, breaking her spine, but she only hurt herself.
Soon Zelda began to hear voices. At first they warned her about a conspiracy among friends against her family, then they forbade her to move. The doctor's diagnosis only confirmed the guesses of many - schizophrenia. From that moment on, Fitzgerald's life was dominated by his wife's illness. He spent huge sums on treatment, drank even more, tried to forget himself in the company of other women, but it was all in vain. New misfortunes rained down on him one after another: Scott breaks his collarbone and cannot write at all for a long time; his mother dies; the daughter does not want to go to college, plays the fool from the heart, and opens her father's letters for the sole purpose of finding inside, between his moralizing, a check. Fitzgerald's heart fails and he dies of a massive heart attack in 1940 at the age of 44.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald with his wife and daughter. (wikimedia.org)
Zelda survived Scott by 8 years. In 1948, her health improved slightly, and the doctors even let her go to Montgomery to see her family for a few days. Already before leaving, saying goodbye to them at the station, Zelda suddenly turned to her mother: “Don't worry, mom! I'm not afraid to die. Scott says it's not scary at all." A few days later, a fire broke out on the territory of the psychiatric hospital where she was treated. One building burned down, nine people died. Among them is Zelda Fitzgerald.
The great American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is a classic example of an alcogen whose passion for alcohol prevailed over the passion for creativity.
Asya Datnova
drinking companions
HAROLD STEERS
An American journalist who became famous thanks to Hemingway's Fiesta, where he is portrayed as more than a colorful character. Steers gambled, drank, and constantly borrowed money that he never paid back. One day, Fitzgerald ran into Steers in a cafe, took pity on him and suggested a way to make money. They drafted a plaintive letter on behalf of Steers, titled it "Why am I always poor in Paris" and "sent" to Fitzgerald. Fitz then sold the letter to his agent for $100 and gave the money to a friend. They drank the fee together.
WIFE ZELDA
From the newspaper chronicle: “Tonight, Mr. Fitzgerald and his wife took an unusual tour of Manhattan. Hailing a taxi at the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, they got into a saloon. In the Fifth Avenue area, it seemed to them that it was inconvenient to drive like that, and they demanded that the driver stop: Mr. Fitzgerald climbed onto the roof of the car, and Mrs. Fitzgerald - onto the hood. Then they ordered to go further ... "
RING LARDNER
American humorist of the early 20th century. He drank faster than Fitzgerald (died 1933). Fitz called Lardner "my alcoholic", seeing him as a living example of what might happen to him in the future. In 1923, the English writer Joseph Conrad visited America. Fitzgerald and Lardner, having strongly given in, decided to dance for him on the lawn as a greeting to the writer - thinking that, having seen this, the writer would not resist and would want to get to know them. Naturally, the drunkard was simply thrown out of the park, and they never met Conrad.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Once, after drinking several carafes of wine, Scott admitted: “I never slept with anyone but Zelda. Zelda said I was so complex that I couldn't make any woman happy. I can't find a place for myself and I want to know the truth. Ham took his comrade to the toilet and examined: “You are normally built. Nothing to worry about. It's just that when you look from above, everything shrinks. Go to the Louvre and look at the statues, and then come home and look at yourself in the mirror.” Comrades drank more, and then went to the Louvre to look at the statues.
Fitzgerald Born September 24, 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in a wealthy Catholic Irish family. Before his birth, the family had lost two children, so Francis Scott was a welcome child. He received his name in honor of his great-great-grandfather, the author of the text of the US national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" Francis Scott Key (1779-1843). Fitzgerald's maternal grandfather, Philip McQuillan, emigrated to the US from Ireland. The family quickly became rich, and by the age of 30, the elder McQuillan became the owner of a large company.
Francis' father, Edward Fitzgerald, came from an ancient Irish family. Unlike the family of his future wife, Molly McQuillan, Edward could not get rich, and during the crisis he was completely ruined. His marriage to the MacQuillans' daughter was disapproved by the latter, and Edward Fitzgerald was not invited to the MacQuillans' house on the main street of St. Paul. Despite this, the McQuillans provided the young family with prosperity, and the future writer got the opportunity to study at prestigious educational institutions:
1908-1910 - at the Saint Paul Academy,
1911-1913 - at Newman School, where during his studies Fitzgerald devotes a lot of time to self-study,
1913-1917 - at Princeton University.
While studying at Princeton Francis Scott Fitzgerald played on the varsity football team, wrote short stories and plays that often won varsity competitions. By this time, he had already formed a dream to become a writer and author of musical comedies. During his years at Princeton, Fitzgerald had to deal with class inequality. He felt differences between himself and children from wealthier families. He later wrote that it was there that he developed "a strong distrust, hostility towards the class of loafers - not the convictions of a revolutionary, but the hidden hatred of the peasant." In 1917, shortly before the final exams, Fitzgerald volunteered for the army. In the army, he made a career and rose to the rank of adjutant to the commander of the 17th Infantry Brigade, General J. A. Ryan. In fact, he served as the general's secretary.
In 1919, Fitzgerald was demobilized, worked for some time as an advertising agent in New York. While still in the army, he met Zelda Sayre, who came from a wealthy and respectable family (she was the daughter of an Alabama state judge) in the city of Montgomery, and was considered a beauty and one of the most enviable brides in the state. It is with her that the entire subsequent biography and work of Fitzgerald is connected. Zelda has been repeatedly called "the brilliant prototype of the heroines of his novels."
Fitzgerald and Sayre's first engagement fell apart as the Sayre family was opposed to the marriage. At that time, Fitzgerald did not have a permanent job and a permanent income. Literary success turned out to be the only chance to marry Zelda. Fitzgerald went to New York, where he got a job as a literary employee in an advertising agency. He does not leave attempts to achieve literary recognition and writes stories, plays and poems, which he sends to various publications. His first literary experiments are unsuccessful and the manuscripts are returned. Fitzgerald deeply experienced failure, began to drink, quit his job and had to return to his parents. At his parents' house, Fitzgerald sits down to redo the manuscript of The Romantic Egoist, which had previously been refused publication.
This novel comes out on March 26, 1920 under the title This Side of Paradise. The novel immediately brings Fitzgerald success. On April 3, 1920, the wedding of Francis Scott and Zelda, who served as the prototype for the heroine of the novel, Rosalind, took place. The popularity of the novel opens the way for Fitzgerald to the world of great literature: his works are being published in prestigious magazines and newspapers: Scribner's, The Saturday Evening Post and others. In addition to fame, the writer's wealth grew, which allowed him and Zelda to lead a chic lifestyle. They soon began to be called the king and queen of their generation.
Having become one of the main characters of the gossip column after the publication of Fitzgerald's first novel, Scott and Zelda began to live, as they say, for show: they enjoyed a fun, rich life that consisted of parties, receptions and trips to European resorts. They constantly "threw out" some kind of eccentric antics that made the entire American high society talk about them: either riding around Manhattan on the roof of a taxi, or swimming in a fountain, or appearing naked at a performance. With all this, their lives also consisted of constant scandals (often on the basis of jealousy) and excessive drinking of both him and her.
All this time, Scott also managed to write quite a lot for magazines, which brought a very tangible income (he was one of the highest paid authors of the then "glossy" magazines). The Fitzgeralds were famous both for their writing and for their luxurious lifestyle. One day Fitzgerald said, "I don't know if Zelda and I are real people or characters from one of my novels."
The first book was followed in 1922 by Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful But Doomed, which describes the painful marriage of two gifted and attractive representatives of artistic bohemia. A collection of short stories "Tales of the Jazz Age" is also published.
In 1924 Fitzgerald leaves for Europe, first to Italy, then to France. Living in Paris, he meets E. Hemingway there. It was in Paris that Fitzgerald completed and published The Great Gatsby (1925), a novel that many critics, and Fitzgerald himself, consider to be a masterpiece of American literature of that period, a symbol of the Jazz Age. In 1926, a collection of short stories "All these sad young people" was published.
During these years, many stories were written with which Fitzgerald earned money to provide for his high standard of living.
However, the next years of Fitzgerald's life are very difficult. For a living, he writes for The Saturday Evening Post. His wife Zelda experiences several bouts of mental clouding, starting in 1925, and gradually goes crazy. She cannot be cured. Fitzgerald going through a painful crisis and begins to abuse alcohol.
In 1930, Zelda suffered a clouding of her mind, after which she suffered from schizophrenia all her life. In 1934, he wrote Tender is the Night, a largely autobiographical novel in which Fitzgerald described his pain, his struggle to save his marriage, and the other side of their luxurious life. However, in America the book did not enjoy great success. Towards the end of his life, Fitzgerald began to think that in his youth, wealth spoiled Zelda. In conversations with his daughter Scotty, he described Zelda in the same terms that he usually addressed to the wealthy in general: "soft when you need to be tougher, and tough when you should give in."
In 1937 Fitzgerald decides to become a screenwriter in Hollywood. There is going to a company of young writers who also decided to try their luck. Among them were Donald Ogden Stewart, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Sidney Joseph Perelman, where he meets Sheila Graham and falls in love with her. The last years of his life, Fitzgerald lives with her, although during regular binges he becomes violent and even cruel.
In October 1939, Fitzgerald began writing a novel about Hollywood life, The Last Tycoon (1941), which was left unfinished. During his three years in Hollywood, he also wrote a series of stories and articles, mostly autobiographical, published after his death in the collection Crash (1945).
Shortly before his death, in an autobiographical article in Esquire magazine, Fitzgerald compared himself to a broken plate.
In 1950, Ernest Hemingway wrote an autobiographical book, A Holiday That Is Always With You, many pages of which are dedicated to Fitzgerald. The friendship and literary rivalry of the two writers formed the basis of Scott Donaldson's book Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald. The Rise and Fall of Literary Friendship (1999). The author analyzes the relationship of two famous writers, describes in detail the episodes of their ugly behavior, alcohol abuse, squabbles and settling small scores. Literary critic and writer Joyce Carol Oates called Donaldson's book a "pathography," a term that sounds like a biography, but clearly alludes to an excessive description of unpleasant details from the lives of Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California.
Francis Scott Kay Fitzgerald(Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, 1896-1940) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories describing the so-called American Jazz Age of the 1920s. Fitzgerald's personal life with his wife Zelda also contributed to the author's fame.
Biography
Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, into a fairly wealthy Catholic family. He studied at Princeton University but did not graduate. At the university, he became close friends with Edmund Wilson.
In 1917 he was drafted into the army, but never took part in hostilities abroad. Instead, Fitzgerald devoted his full time to writing his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which was a great success immediately upon publication in 1920. That same year, Fitzgerald married Zelda Sayre, with whom they enjoyed a cheerful rich life, consisting of parties, receptions and trips to European resorts. All this time, Scott also managed to write quite a lot for magazines, which brought a very tangible income (he was one of the highest paid authors of the then "glossy" magazines). The Fitzgeralds were famous both for their writing and for their luxurious lifestyle. Fitzgerald once said, "I don't know if Zelda and I are real people or characters from one of my novels." The first book was followed by The Beautiful and the Damned (1922) and The Great Gatsby (1925), a novel that many critics, and Fitzgerald himself, consider to be the masterpiece of American literature of that period. . Many stories were also written during these years, with which Fitzgerald made money to support his expensive lifestyle.
The subsequent years of Fitzgerald's life were very difficult. In 1930, Zelda suffered a clouding of her mind, after which she suffered from schizophrenia all her life. In 1934, he wrote Tender is the Night, a largely autobiographical novel in which Fitzgerald described his pain, his struggle to save his marriage, and the other side of their luxurious life. In America, the book did not enjoy great success, and Fitzgerald took up writing scripts in Hollywood.
In October 1939, Fitzgerald began writing a novel about Hollywood life, The Last Tycoon (1941), which remained unfinished. During his three years in Hollywood, he also wrote a series of short stories and articles, mostly autobiographical, published after his death in The Crack-Up (1945).
Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California.
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