The Great Gatsby Achievements

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, better known as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a famous American novelist and short story writer. Named after his famous relative Francis Scott Key who was famous for writing the "Star Spangled-Banner", F. Scott Fitzgerald was considered to be one of the greatest writers during the twentieth-century. However, Fitzgerald was not always as famous as he is now. Like most authors, there were many struggles in his career. His stories were usually turned down the first time, and he was told to continue working on them. His personal life was very interesting, full of twists and turns as he attempted to be famous. Most of his novels weren 't even best sellers until years after he had already passed away. Fitzgerald was born …show more content…
He was very popular with The Saturday Evening Post and that became his main source of income. He began his third novel, The Great Gatsby shortly after he moved to France in 1924. Eventually this would be known as his finest work, unfortunately he would not live to see that day. When the novel was first published, it only sold approximately twenty thousand copies, which compared to his other two novels, was not ideal. It was not until the late 50 's that the book would be recognized as one of the greatest novels in America 's history. According to Scribner and his sons, more than 20 million copies of the book have been sold since the day it was …show more content…
During Scott 's journey to become a famous author, he became an alcoholic. This made him struggle to write as well as he used too, causing his fame to be short lived. In the late 1920 's his beloved wife started to suffer from mental breakdowns. She spent the next year in the Prangins Clinic in Switzerland. This inspired Fitzgerald to write his short story titled "One Trip Abroad" about a married couple who falls apart in Europe. As soon as Zelda was released from the clinic, they headed back to the U.S. She relapsed only three months later and Fitzgerald had to contact Doctor Jonathan Slocum, owner of a clinic located in Beacon, New York. At the time, spousal visits were discouraged for the first few weeks of hospitalization, for nine weeks he was not able to see his wife. He then rented a house in Baltimore for him and his daughter, Scottie, to live in. During this time Fitzgerald sent several letters to Dr. Slocum trying to figure out what could be wrong with Zelda. He suggested that it could be schizophrenia, but then ruled that out saying, "I would rather have Zelda a sane mystic than a mad realist." He even suggested it would have something to do with her asthma, he informed Dr. Slocum that growing up she would always have an asthma attack when around deer and at the time of her mental breakdowns they had deer heads mounted on the walls in their home. Scott was convinced that she