VOICE 1:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I’m Steve Ember with the Special English program, People inAmerica. Every week we tell about someone important in the historyof the United States. Today we tell about writer F. ScottFitzgerald.
VOICE 1:
Early in nineteen-twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgeraldwas poor and unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl hewanted to marry had rejected him. Her family said he could notsupport her.
Later that same year, Fitzgerald’s first novel, “This Side ofParadise,” was accepted for publication. He said that when the newsarrived in the mail: “I left my job. I paid my debts, bought a suitof clothes and woke in the morning to a world of promise.”
He quickly became rich and famous. That year before “This Side ofParadise” was published, he said he earned eight-hundred dollars bywriting. The following year, with his first book published, heearned eighteen-thousand dollars by writing.
Yet by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen-forty, atthe age of forty-four, his money was gone, and so was his fame. Mostpeople could not believe that he had not died years before.
The problem was that he was so much a part of the age hedescribed, the “Roaring Twenties.” So when the period ended peoplethought he must have ended with it.
VOICE 2:
The nineteen-twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the”war to end all wars,” was over. The twenties ended with a huge dropin stock market prices that began the Great Depression. Fitzgeraldwas a representative of the years of fast living in between.
The nation’s values had changed. Many Americans were concernedmainly with having a good time. People broke the law by drinkingalcohol. They danced to jazz music. Women wore short skirts.
Money differences between one group of Americans and another hadbecome sharper at the beginning of the twentieth century. By thenineteen-twenties, many people believed that gaining the materialthings one desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wroteabout the lives of people who lived as if that were true.
VOICE 1:
There was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things.”The test of a first-rate intelligence,” he said, “is the ability tohold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still havethe ability to act.” His two opposing ideas involved seekinghappiness from material things, and knowing that material thingsonly brought unhappiness.
Of his own time, he said: “There seemed no question about whatwas going to happen. America was going on the greatest party in itshistory and there was going to be plenty to tell about.” Yet if hedescribed only the party, his writings would have been forgottenwhen the party ended.
“All the stories that came into my head,” he said, “had a touchof unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories wereruined, the diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had nothappened yet. But I was sure that living was not the carelessbusiness that people thought.”
Fitzgerald was able to experience the wild living of the periodyet write about its effect on people as though he were just anobserver. That is a major reason his writings still are popular.
((Music))
VOICE 2:
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the middle-western cityof Saint Paul, Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother’s familythere were Southern landowners and politicians. The member of thefamily for whom he was named had written the words to “The StarSpangled Banner,” America’s national song.
His father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went tofree public schools and, when he was fifteen, a costly privateschool where he learned how the rich lived.
When F. Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered PrincetonUniversity.
VOICE 1:
Fitzgerald was not a good student. He spent more time writing forschool plays and magazines at Princeton than studying. His poorrecord troubled him less than the fact that he was not a good enoughathlete to be on the university’s football team.
University officials warned him he had to do better in hisstudies or he would be expelled. So he decided to leave theuniversity after three years to join the United States Army. It wasWorld War One, but the war ended before he saw active duty. He methis future wife while he was at one of the bases where he trained.The girl, Zelda Sayre, was a local beauty in the southern city ofMontgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then sherejected him when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give herthe life she expected.
VOICE 2:
Fitzgerald was crushed. He went to New York City innineteen-nineteen with two goals. One was to make a lot of money.The other was to win the girl he loved.
He rewrote and completed a novel that he had started in college.The book, “This Side of Paradise,” was published in nineteen-twenty.It was an immediate success.
Fitzgerald told his publisher that he did not expect more thantwenty-thousand copies of the book to be sold. The publisher laughedand said five-thousand copies of a first novel would be very good.Within one week, however, twenty-thousand copies of the book weresold.
At twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after thenovel appeared Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald hadgained the two goals he had set for himself.
At this point the fairy taleshould end with the expression: “They lived happily ever after.” Butthat was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds.
VOICE 1:
Fitzgerald is reported to have said to his friend, the Americanwriter Ernest Hemingway: “The very rich are different from you andme.” Hemingway is reported to have answered, “Yes, they have moremoney.” The exchange tells a great deal about each writer. Hemingwaysaw a democratic world where people were measured by their ability,not by what they owned. Fitzgerald saw the deep differences betweengroups of people that money creates. He decided to be among therich.
To do this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he hadtime, continued to write novels. He also continued to live as thoughhis life was one long party.
For several years he was successful at everything. Editors paidmore for a story by Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he soldeverything he wrote. Some stories were very good. He wrote veryfast, though. So some stories were bad. Even the bad ones, however,had a spirit and a life that belonged to Fitzgerald. As soon as hehad enough good stories he collected them in a book.
VOICE 2:
Fitzgerald quickly learned that a life of partying all the timedid not help him write his best. But he could not give up the fun.
Scott and Zelda lived in New York City. He drank too much. Shespent too much money. He promised himself to live a less costlylife. Always, however, he spent more than he earned from writing.
In addition to the individual stories, two collections of hisstories, “Flappers and Philosophers” and “Tales of the Jazz Age,”appeared in nineteen-twenty and nineteen-twenty-two. A second novel,”The Beautiful and Damned,” also was published innineteen-twenty-two.
VOICE 1:
The novel was well received, but it was nothing like the successof his first novel. Fitzgerald was unhappy with the critics andunhappy with the money the book earned. He and his wife moved toFrance with their baby daughter. They made many friends among theAmericans who had fled to Paris. But they failed to cut their livingcosts.
Fitzgerald was always in debt. He owed money to his publisher andthe man who helped to sell his writings. In his stories he saysrepeatedly that no one can have everything. He seemed to try,though. It looked for a brief time like he might succeed.
VOICE 2:
Fitzgerald continued to be affected by the problems that wouldfinally kill him: the drinking and the debts. Yet bynineteen-twenty-five his best novel, “The Great Gatsby,” waspublished.
It is the story of a young man’s search for his idea of love. Italso is a story of what the young man must do to win that lovebefore he discovers that it is not worth having.
Next week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shalltell you about the rest of Fitzgerald’s short life.
(Theme)
VOICE 1:
This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman andproduced by Lawan Davis. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude thestory of the life of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special Englishon the Voice of America.