F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota in 1896 and became famous with This Side of Paradise when he was 24. The success let him marry Zelda Sayre. They became the face of the Jazz Age together - drinking heavily, partying, living beyond their means.
The Fitzgeralds lived the life Fitzgerald wrote about. During the 1920s they moved between America and France, especially the French Riviera, where they socialized with Ernest Hemingway and other expatriate writers. Their drinking caused fights and financial problems. Magazine stories paid their bills, but Fitzgerald focused on novels examining the costs of chasing wealth.
The Great Gatsby (1925) tells the story of Nick Carraway, who observes his neighbor Jay Gatsby’s obsession with reuniting with Daisy Buchanan. Daisy married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy but careless man. The novel shows American society where money buys houses, cars, and parties but cannot bring happiness or restore the past.
Fitzgerald wrote Tender Is the Night for years, basing it partly on his marriage to Zelda. Dick Diver, a psychiatrist, marries Nicole Warren, a wealthy patient who eventually destroys him. Critics praised the writing, but readers found it harder to access than Gatsby. Zelda’s mental health problems and institutionalization complicated the writing.
He died in 1940 thinking he had failed. Gatsby became widely read after his death. Literary scholars now study his metaphors, narrative techniques, and treatment of class in America. High school students read it because the themes - unrequited love, the gap between appearance and reality, the limits of wealth - still resonate.