F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) “Often, I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself, leaving always something thinner, barer, more meager.” He lived the extremes of the American dream—both the joys of young wealth and success, and the tragedies of excess and failure. In 1919, at 23, he became a literary celebrity when his novel This Side of Paradise became a bestseller. He and his wife, Zelda, made the most of the roaring ’20s— indulging in lavish parties, drunken sprees, and constant globetrotting. The two of them had lived in Italy, France, Switzerland, and eight cities in the United States before 1930. When he met James Joyce in Paris, Joyce reportedly said, “The young man must be mad. I’m afraid he’ll do himself some injury.” He did. By 1930, Fitzgerald’s alcoholism was beginning to take its toll. Zelda was showing signs of mental illness and would eventually spend much of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. By 1937, he was working as a screen-writer in Hollywood, deeply in debt, with his best work, The Great Gatsby, out of print. By the time he died of a heart attack in 1940, he considered himself a failure. It was only years later that his work was rediscovered. The Great Gatsby is now considered one of the finest novels of the 20th century and Fitzgerald one of its greatest talents. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)