F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

Born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-class Catholic family, F. Scott Fitzgerald attended the prestigious Catholic institution, the Newman School, in Hackensack, New Jersey.

From The Great Gatsby:

“…girls were swooning backward playfully into men’s arms…but no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby’s shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby’s head for one link.”

At Princeton University, Scott devoted himself to humor and music writing, and let his studies wither. Without finishing, he joined the army in 1917 and quickly wrote a novel, in case he was killed in action before he had proven himself a writer.

As a soldier stationed in Alabama, he fell for eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre. With his book’s publication seemingly imminent, she agreed to marry him, but it was rejected and she broke off their engagement. In 1919, he rewrote the novel. Published as This Side of Paradise in 1920, it made him famous. Scott and Zelda married the following week.

The couple returned to Saint Paul, had a daughter, then bought a house in Great Neck, Long Island. Fitzgerald’s play, The Vegetable, failed, money was tight and tensions escalated, fueled by prodigious drinking.

In 1924, seeking solace in Paris, he wrote The Great Gatsby, which sold modestly. In 1930, Zelda was hospitalized for the first of several breakdowns. He would later incorporate portions of her diaries into sections of his novel, Tender Is the Night, set in a sanitarium. Fitzgerald struggled with poor health, alcoholism, and financial woes. At forty-four, halfway through a novel, he died of a heart attack, believing himself a failed writer.

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Tender Is the Night. The tragic romance and ruination of a young psychiatrist who adores his former-patient-turned-wife. Closely modeled on real life, Fitzgerald described this book as his “confession of faith.”

Gin Rickey

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Gatsby take “long, greedy swallows” of their Gin Rickeys.

1½ oz. gin

Juice of half a lime

Carbonated water

Lime wheels, quartered

Pour lime juice and gin into an old-fashioned glass over ice cubes. Fill with carbonated water and stir. Add the lime. Serves 1.