About the Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the great American authors of the twentieth century, was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was at Princeton University when he left it in 1917 to join the army. During his time in the army he wrote The Romantic Egoist which was rejected when he submitted it for publication. The publisher remarked that it might be submitted again after revision. Fitzgerald revised The Romantic Egoist in 1919 when he was discharged from the army and it was published as This Side of Paradise in March 1920. While still in the army, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre in 1918 who became Zelda Fitzgerald in April 1920. In October 1921, they had a daughter, their only child. In 1924, Fitzgeralds traveled to France where he wrote The Great Gatsby. They returned to the United States in 1925. In addition to the above two novels, Fitzgerald wrote two more novels, one incomplete novel, many volumes of short stories, a drama and a collection of nonfiction writings. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1940.