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Scott was born in Minnesota
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Fitzgerald attends St. Paul Academy, and it is there that he publishes his first piece of writing, at the age of 13.
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Fitzgerald enters Princeton University and writes for The Princeton Tiger, the school’s humor magazine. At Princeton he becomes a leading figure in literary life and writes scripts for the Triangle Club, a drama club at the university and eventually flunks out
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Fitzgerald moves to New York City and lands a job at an advertising agency, making $90 a month. He works there for several months.
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His first book, This Side of Paradise, is published. The novel brings him fame and money.
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He marries Zelda in April. They become a celebrated couple.
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Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, is published. Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection of short stories, is also published.
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While in France, Fitzgerald completes his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. After the success of this book, he writes several brilliant short stories, but eight years will pass before his next novel is published.
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After The Great Gatsby is published, Fitzgerald’s drinking becomes excessive
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Zelda suffers a mental breakdown in 1930. She spends the next year in European clinics. After she is released in 1931, they move back to the United States. She has a second breakdown in 1932 from which she never fully recovers.
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Move back to the United States
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publishes her first and only novel, Save Me the Waltz, which is based on the Fitzgeralds’ troubled marriage.
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Fitzgerald’s last completed novel, Tender Is the Night, is published. It is one of his most moving books but is commercially unsuccessful.
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In 1937 Fitzgerald moves to Hollywood and becomes a scriptwriter
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He meets and falls in love with Sheilah Graham, a famous Hollywood gossip columnist
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he begins writing a novel about Hollywood entitled The Last Tycoon. The career of its hero, Monroe Stahr, is based on that of American film executive Irving Thalberg.
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Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack in Hollywood
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The Last Tycoon is published in the year after his death.
