As a icon of the "Lost Generation", F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the youthful Jazz Age of Americans in the 1920s. Fitzgerald defined the Jazz Age as a time when " a new generation [had] grown to find...all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken (Holt 436)." His life was filled with the same tragedies and disillusionments that plagued his characters. With a success to his first novel and a beautiful wife his future appeared bright, however his glamorous lifestyle was cut short by his own alcoholism and declining creativity.
Named for his famous distant cousin on his father's side: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1886 in St. Paul, Minnesota (Britannica 393). His father, Edward Fitzgerald, was a salesman whose furniture business had failed. Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, his mother, was the daughter of a successful wholesale grocer. Mary had lost two children to epidemics before her bright, handsome Scott came along (Kuehl). The family moved regularly, but settled finally in St. Paul.
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