89
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1896–1940
The name of Scott Fitzgerald is forever
associated with the Jazz Age, but this has perhaps done him a disservice. He represents a particular kind of
Irish-American experience, one in total contrast to that of James T. Farrell and
John O'Hara. He reminds us, if we needed
reminding, of the huge variation in the experiences of Irish Americans. Some of them had not only lace curtains on
the windows, they had polished silver on the
sideboard.
After
his death, his daughter Scottie investigated the complicated family background
of her father and the families with whom he was connected. Fitzgerald had cherished the thought that he
had rich Southern relatives, but far more important were his Irish ones. His grandfather, Philip McQuillan,
had been born in Fermanagh in
Francis
Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in
The
last two years of his pre-school education were passed in the
In
March 1920 his first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published, and
the following month, on 3rd April, he married Zelda Sayre in the rectory of St
Patrick's Cathedral in
It
was as a short-story writer, especially of a popular literary yet commercial
story, that made Fitzgerald's name. In
the days of the prosperous magazines, a living could be made from writing from
them. His first novel captured something
of the hectic college life he had left behind, but always hankered after. This was followed by The Beautiful and the
Damned in 1922, but it was The Great Gatsby, published in 1925,
which established him as a major literary figure, and it is generally agreed to
be not only his masterpiece, but a novel of special significance to the
American experience.
After
this, Fitzgerald began to suffer literary and personal difficulties. He and his wife moved to Paris, met Ernest
Hemingway, James Joyce and other writers of the period. He and Zelda lived in the south of
His
next book, Tender is the Night, did not appear until 1934, and from then
on his career disintegrated. The critics were, on the whole, kind to the book, which sold
moderately well, but it was no great seller, and it left the author with unpaid
debts and a feeling that there was some fault in the novel which could still be
put right.
His
next novel The Last Tycoon was left unfinished at his death and had to
be arranged for publication by his friend, the critic Edmund Wilson. This book, which had cost him so much
turmoil, was moving in a new direction.
However, Fitzgerald was unable to follow it - his talent was dying.
He
went out to that graveyard of talents,