Fitzgerald, Francis Scott (Key)

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott (Key) (b. St Paul, Minn., 24 September 1896; d. Hollywood, Calif., 21 December 1940) A Princeton man (1917) who performed army duty in World War I, Fitzgerald published his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in 1920 and won critical acclaim. He became one of the most prominent authors of the lost generation. His dysfunctional marriage to Zelda Sayre steadily degenerated from glamor and mirthmaking to alcoholism and mental despair. His other major books were The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender is the Night (1933), and The Crack-Up (1936). He ended his career as a film writer.