Francis Scott Fitzgerald Timeline

September 24th, 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St.Paul Minnesota. (+)

1908, Fitzgerald failed as a manufacturer of the wicker furniture company in St. Paul, and he became a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York. (-)

October 1909, At the age of 14, F. Scott Fitzgerald appears in print for the first time, with "The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage" in the student publication St. Paul Academy Now and Then. (+)

He attended Newman School, a catholic prep school in New Jersey 1911-1913

September 1913, Fitzgerald enters Princeton University with the class of 1917 (+)

1914, In his sophomore year Fitzgerald stated to get involved in Princeton’s literary scene. (+)

1917, Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton University to join the army and continue his obsession of writing magazine articles and sometimes musical lyrics. (+)

1917, He submitted his first novel “The Romantic Egotist” to be published at the age of 21 but it was rejected by Charles Scribner’s sons, however they did give him words of encouragement. (+)

1918, Fitzgerald met Zelda when the army stationed him near Montgomery Alabama. (+)

November 11, 1918, World war 1 ends before 2nd Lieutenant Fitzgerald ever leaves the U.S. His failure to see foreign combat will forever be one of Fitzgerald's biggest regrets. (-)

1919 Zelda breaks her and Fitzgerald's engagement after she grew tired of waiting for him to make a fortune. (-)

Fall-Winter 1919, Fitzgerald officially commenced his career as a writer by writing stories for the mass-circulation magazines. (+)

Fitzgerald quit his job in July 1919 and returned to St. Paul to rewrite his novel as “This Side of Paradise.” (+)

The publication of “This Side of Paradise” on March 26, 1920, made Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. (+)

May 3, 1921, The Fitzgeralds depart for their first trip to Europe. They spend 3 months there. (+)

When Zelda Fitzgerald became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled in St. Paul for the birth of Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921.(+)

March 4, 1922 The Beautiful and Damned is published. (+)

In the fall of 1922 the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, Long Island, in order to be near Broadway. (+)

During the period of November 1923 he was an alcoholic but when he wrote sober. (-)

1924, he wrote the "The Great Gatsby," during the summer and fall in Valescure near St. Raphael. (+)

The Fitzgeralds spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome, where he revised “The Great Gatsby.” (+)

Zelda started suffering several breakdowns in both her physical and mental health, and sought treatment in and out of clinics starting in 1930. (-)

Zelda Fitzgerald suffered a relapse in February 1932 and entered Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. (-)

Fitzgerald won a contract in 1937 to write for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood. (+)

On the 21st of December 1940 Francis Scott Fitzgerald died believing he was a failure. (-)