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F. Scott Fitzgerald was a self-made man who epitomized both
the glory of the Jazz Age and the desperation of the aftermath
of the 1929 stock market crash. Born and raised in St. Paul,
Minnesota, Fitzgerald met and fell in love with Zelda Zayre
when his army unit was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama. Zelda
refused his marriage proposal, so Fitzgerald left for New
York to win a fortune and Zelda's love. He succeeded with
This Side of Paradise (1920), an instant critical
and financial hit: Zelda married him a week after its release.
The Fitzgeralds were extravagant beyond their means, partying
and drinking into the night and using up all the proceeds
from two short-story collections and a second novel, The
Beautiful and the Damned (1922). They moved to France
in 1924 -- living among the group of American expatriates
that included Hemingway, Stein, and Pound -- and in 1925 Fitzgerald
wrote his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. The party
ended, though, when heavy debts drove Scott to alcoholism
and Zelda to insanity: she had a breakdown in 1931 and spent
the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Fitzgerald continued
to write to support himself and their daughter, finally landing
in Hollywood in 1937 as a screenwriter. He died of a heart
attack at the age of forty-four.
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