The Great Gatsby context
The Great Gatsby: Contextual knowledge
F. Scott Fitzgerald (FSF)
September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940
Born into an upper-middle-class Catholic family of Irish and English descent, whom he was bought up by in New York
In 1908, the family returned to Minnesota, when his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, where Father Sigourney Fay encouraged FSF’s writing talent
FSF went on to study at Princeton, where his writing took priority leading to him dropping out and join the U.S. Army
Fearful he may die unfulfilled FSF reeled off a hasty novel (The Romantic Egotist); though rejected, the reviewer noted its originality and encouraged future submissions
Commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sherdian in Alabama where he met, at a country club, and fell in love with Zelda Sayre (FSF was never deployed)
Zelda Sayre: daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice and “the golden girl”, in Fitzgerald’s terms, of Montgomery youth society
Upon discharge he moved to NYC to launch a career in advertising, to try and become rich enough to convince Zelda to marry him (he lived in a single room on Manhattan’s west side)
Zelda accepted his marriage proposal, but after some time and despite working at an advertising firm and writing short stories, he was unable to convince her that he would be able to support her, leading her to break off the engagement
1919: the revision of The Romantic Egoist, a semi-autobiographical of his Princeton years, This Side of Paradise was accepted by Scribner’s; leading to FSF and Zelda’s engagement to resume
Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald, their daughter and only child, was born in October 1921
‘The Jazz Age’ (a nuance coined by FSF) was the most influential decade for FSF, notably his excursions to Europe, particularly to Paris and the French Riviera; became friends with the Parisian expatriate Americans, notably Ernest Hemingway (who deemed Zelda “insane” and claimed she “encouraged her husband to
F. Scott Fitzgerald (FSF)
September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940
Born into an upper-middle-class Catholic family of Irish and English descent, whom he was bought up by in New York
In 1908, the family returned to Minnesota, when his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, where Father Sigourney Fay encouraged FSF’s writing talent
FSF went on to study at Princeton, where his writing took priority leading to him dropping out and join the U.S. Army
Fearful he may die unfulfilled FSF reeled off a hasty novel (The Romantic Egotist); though rejected, the reviewer noted its originality and encouraged future submissions
Commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to Camp Sherdian in Alabama where he met, at a country club, and fell in love with Zelda Sayre (FSF was never deployed)
Zelda Sayre: daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court justice and “the golden girl”, in Fitzgerald’s terms, of Montgomery youth society
Upon discharge he moved to NYC to launch a career in advertising, to try and become rich enough to convince Zelda to marry him (he lived in a single room on Manhattan’s west side)
Zelda accepted his marriage proposal, but after some time and despite working at an advertising firm and writing short stories, he was unable to convince her that he would be able to support her, leading her to break off the engagement
1919: the revision of The Romantic Egoist, a semi-autobiographical of his Princeton years, This Side of Paradise was accepted by Scribner’s; leading to FSF and Zelda’s engagement to resume
Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald, their daughter and only child, was born in October 1921
‘The Jazz Age’ (a nuance coined by FSF) was the most influential decade for FSF, notably his excursions to Europe, particularly to Paris and the French Riviera; became friends with the Parisian expatriate Americans, notably Ernest Hemingway (who deemed Zelda “insane” and claimed she “encouraged her husband to