Introduction
This slideshow is a Pecha Kucha that tells the story of the Fitzgeralds. Each slide corresponds to a block of text below. The text starts with slide two.
Beginnings
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota to an upper-middle-class family. The only son of an unsuccessful aristocratic father, Scott was always focused on his future. Chasing after success, even in his early years, he strove to be the top of his class at Newman Catholic school, even then, writing successful plays for the drama club.
Princeton
Fitzgerald attended Princeton, where he dedicated his time to creating an operetta for the Triangle Club, a literature and drama club. He abandoned all academics, failing in all his classes. He managed to come back the second year through tutoring, but left to “Recuperate”. There he met friends like literary critic Edmund Wilson, who critiqued his work over time.
Young Love
In July of 1918, while he was stationed near Montgomery, Alabama, Fitzgerald met southern belle Zelda Sayre. Arguably just as talented and ambitious as Scott, Zelda quickly fell in love with him. However, she did not agree to marry him until he became successful with the publishing of his first novel, The Side of Paradise. Once married, they became celebrities in their own right and entered into a time of extravagance and splendor.
Move To France
Fitzgerald visited England, France, and Italy on his first trip to Europe with Zelda in 1921. He then moved to the French Riviera in June 1924 after spending a month in Paris.This was where he spent the summer and fall creating his arguable magnum opus, The Great Gatsby.
La Vie est Belle
The Fitzgeralds consumed French culture with a flourish of style and chaotic elegance. Often seen partying at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, they danced on tables and drank to their hearts’ content. But, at the same time, they were also swept up in the salons of the era, engaging in artistic expression and deep conversations.
Initial Perspectives on French Culture
After moving to the Riviera, Fitzgerald described it as “a sort of idyllic state among everything lovely imaginable” and only occasionally missed the metropolitan life. His later remarks provide some contrast to this, as he said that Europe had little impression on him and that both France and Italy were a decaying civilization. France was lost after the ruin of la Belle Epoque.
Scott’s Ledger
Throughout all of his experiences, Fitzgerald kept a very detailed ledger, marking the places he went and the people he interacted with. Through this ledger, we know exactly where he was during any given month of his entire life. More importantly, however, we also know exactly what months were spent writing any given story, and how much each brought in income.
The Great Gatsby
Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is possibly most notorious of Fitzgerald’s novels. With its elegant prose and vibrant and colorful themes, this novel not only serves as a literary masterwork, but also a definition of the era, as images of glamour and frivolous debauchery place the Roaring Twenties as a an age of self-indulgence.
Tender is the Night Vs. Save Me the Waltz
Another novel, Tender is the Night follows a psychologist who marries one of his patients and falls into alcoholism and infidelity when she is institutionalized. Save Me the Waltz follows a woman through four parts of her life: childhood, marriage to a painter, increasing emptiness, and escape to ballet. These mirror the mental illness, alcoholism, and false glamour in the Fitzgeralds’ life.
A Rhapsody
Like Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Fitzgerald’s prose captures specific moments with an emphasis on sound. As opposed to Hemingway’s play-like writing, and Stein’s deconstructed cubist form, Fitzgerald’s prose was steeped in its melodic descriptions and metaphor, as seen through ending quote of Great Gatsby: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”
The Community of Writers
Fitzgerald was impacted by writers through personal relationships and literature, with cafe culture, salon culture, and the Paris setting as conduits. Influential people were Hemingway, EE Cummings, Stein, Picasso, and Beach. They found solidarity as Americans engaging with foreign culture, and that culture also shaped their perspectives on America.
Hemingway
Hemingway first met Fitzgerald at the Dingo Bar in 1925, two weeks after The Great Gatsby was published. In A Moveable Feast he described Scott’s physical appearance in great detail, saying he even ignored Scott’s speech. Three days later they met at La Closerie des Lilas, developing a friendship, both personal and literary, and often strained by Zelda. It would last until Fitzgerald’s death.
E. E. Cummings
EE Cummings was regarded by Fitzgerald as an influential presence in the literary world. Cummings wrote a book on his experience driving ambulances in the war, along with Hemingway, and then his subsequent three month imprisonment for false charges of treason in La Ferté-Macé west of Paris. Fitzgerald hailed his book as the standout among all the wartime literature.
Gertrude Stein
Another infamous author of the Lost the Generation, Gertrude Stein proved a fantastic mentor for Fitzgerald. He repeatedly voiced his admiration for her work, claiming that “she was some sort of punctuation mark in literary history” (Correspondence, 484). When he is finally introduced to her in 1925, they began to personally correspond, thus, she became an important voice of criticism in his work.
Pablo Picasso
A friend and major influence of Gertrude Stein’s (and, consequently, Fitzgerald’s), Picasso was also among those of the Lost Generation. Indeed, Picasso and Fitzgerald spent time together both in Paris and the French Riviera. Subsequently finding the same muse in Sarah Murphy, who is depicted in the painting. Sarah would later become the model for Nicole Diver, one of the main characters in Tender is the Night.
Sylvia Beach
Another literary figure in Fitzgerald’s life was Sylvia Beach. Fitzgerald would often visit her store, Shakespeare and Company. As shown in the drawing, he would also visit her for dinner parties with other authors, such as James Joyce. In this sketch, Beach is portrayed as a goddess at the head of the table, clearly established as an authority figure of great accomplishment in Fitzgerald’s life.
Impact of Those Writers on the American Perception of French Culture
The Americans had a great influence in Parisian culture, much of it even physically remaining today. Shakespeare and Co. continually flourishes in American literary prestige. In their time, engaging with salon culture through Gertrude Stein and meeting at cafes gave Americans a sense of education and culture through carefree communication.
Zelda and Scott’s Contradictory Legacy as Symbols of the Roaring Twenties and the American Dream: Splendor…
Zelda and Scott hold a place in history as symbols of the roaring twenties and glamorous flapper culture, evidenced by The Great Gatsby, their time in the Riviera and at wild parties in Montmartre. Scott said he loved the wild, almost amoral flapper girls, and was happy he married one. They also acted an an idyllic family with daughter Scottie in tow.
…To Tragedy
But the Fitzgeralds led far from happy lives. Zelda’s mental state declined in the 1930s and Scott’s alcoholism worsened when she was institutionalized. Zelda channeled her anguish into pain-filled paintings. Both began writing novels, but as Scott’s success began to fail, he controlled the material Zelda could use. Scott died of a heart attack at age forty four, and Zelda died in a hospital fire eight years later.
Boats Against the Current
Like other Americans before him, Fitzgerald’s relationship with Paris was dynamic and intimate. As apart of the Lost Generation, his hardships and legacy define him as an artist searching for purpose among a foreign nation. For in Paris he found inspiration, camaraderie, and romance, leaving his mark on American history as one who both found the joys of Paris, and the sorrows of a lost generation.
La Vie Glamour de F. Scott Fitzgerald à Paris 