This Side of Paradise

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896, into a middle-class family. Fitzgerald’s father, Edward, failed as a manufacturer and salesman, so the family lived off his mother’s income. Fitzgerald began writing when he was 13 and began his first year at Princeton in 1917. He gave up academic pursuits in favor of literary ones, writing poetry and prose for Princeton’s literary magazine and writing scripts and lyrics for the university’s Triangle Club.

In 1917, Fitzgerald joined the army and became a second lieutenant in the infantry. During this time, he began “The Romantic Egotist,” a first draft that would eventually become This Side of Paradise. He finished this piece quickly, fearing he would die fighting in WWI. Scribner’s Sons rejected his draft but asked Fitzgerald to revise and resubmit it. Fitzgerald then moved to Montgomery, Alabama, for an army assignment in June 1918. Here, he met Zelda Sayre, daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Judge. The couple fell in love and quickly became engaged.

The army discharged Fitzgerald in 1919, the year after WWI ended. He moved to New York to seek his fortune but failed to make enough money, so Zelda broke off their engagement. Fitzgerald then moved to St. Paul in June 1919 to revise This Side of Paradise. He also made money writing for several magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post. Scribner’s Sons published This Side of Paradise in 1920, launching Fitzgerald into instant fame and success. Fitzgerald and Zelda married one week after the novel’s publication. She then gave birth to their only child in October 1921.

Despite his popularity after This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald made most of his money from writing short stories, which became widely popular. However, he developed alcohol dependency and fought frequently with Zelda. His drinking grew so frequent that his reputation as a writer became tarnished, preventing critics from taking him seriously.

Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby while wintering in Europe from 1924 to 1925. Fitzgerald’s income from the novel disappointed him, but critics praised the story highly. While in Paris, Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway and developed a lasting friendship. Zelda’s behavior, however, became increasingly erratic. She had her first mental health crisis in April 1930, so Fitzgerald stopped working on his next novel to write short stories to pay for Zelda’s treatment in Switzerland.

Zelda had another mental health crisis in February 1932 and spent the rest of her life in sanitariums. The couple managed their money poorly, which caused further strain. Fitzgerald published his final novel, Tender is the Night, in 1934, but it was a commercial failure. By 1935, Fitzgerald was ill and impoverished. He moved to Hollywood in the summer of 1937 and worked for MGM. He also fell in love with a movie columnist named Sheila Graham. Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, while in Shelia’s Hollywood apartment. Zelda died in 1948 from a fire in her North Carolina hospital. While not wholly appreciated in his time, Fitzgerald achieved literary greatness when critics named The Great Gatsby the classic American novel in the 1960s.

This Side of Paradise is a semi-autobiographical novel, reflecting several aspects of Fitzgerald’s own coming of age. His family background is similar to Amory’s, while Amory’s education at Princeton parallels Fitzgerald’s experience closely, as Amory also writes poetry for a campus publication and the Triangle Club. Like Fitzgerald, Amory distrusts his teachers and fails to succeed academically. Zelda’s breaking off of her engagement to Fitzgerald is similar to Rosalind breaking her engagement to Amory due to his lack of money. Amory likewise has the opportunity to write short stories for a magazine, which would bring him an income, but he fights the conventional and refuses to write more despite his clear literary aptitude.