Born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD dropped out of Princeton University in 1917 to join the army. He met the socialite Zelda Sayre while stationed in Alabama and married her in 1920 after the success of This Side of Paradise. Fame, money, and alcohol took their toll on the young couple. After Zelda was institutionalized, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood in 1937. His experiences there inspired the unfinished novel The Last Tycoon (1941). His major works include The Beautiful and Damned (1922), The Great Gatsby (1925), All the Sad Young Men (1926), and Tender is the Night (1934). Fitzgerald died of heart failure in Hollywood in 1940. James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of The Perfect Hour- The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginerva King, among other works, and was for many years the General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“Sumptuous. . . . Presented beautifully with exhaustive scholarly notes and striking illustrations and photographs, it is essential material for Fitzophiles, packed with social, personal and literary illuminations . . . bringing the book’s contemporaneous references back to life again for a modern reader.” —Irish Independent ""Surely Fitzgerald would have been thrilled. . . . [The] many illustrations and photographs, and the kinds of gem-like notations that are certain to make lovers of Fitzgerald arcana happy . . . should enhance the experience of someone even on their third or fourth reread."" —The Nation