Francis scott fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
(named after Francis Scott Key,
author of the United States'
national anthem "The Star
Spangled Banner") was born
into
an upper-middleclass family on
24 September 1896 in St. Paul,
Minnesota. He was the only son
of Edward Fitzgerald
(1853-1931)
and Mary 'Mollie' McQuillan
(1860-1936), but had onesister,
Annabel, born in 1901. In 1898
the Fitzgeralds moved to
Buffalo,
New York where Edward
obtained a job as salesman with
Proctor and Gamble after hisfurniture-making company
foundered. It was the first move
of many that Francis would
make during his lifetime. When
Edward lost his job in 1908 they
were back in St. Paul Thatsame year, young Francis
was enrolled in the St. Paul
Academy. Early on he showed a
love of the theatre and writing--
his first work to appear in print
was a detectivestory The
Mystery of the Raymond
Mortgage (1909) in the
Academy's student paper Now
and Then. He next attended The
Newman School, a Catholic
prep
school in Hackensack,New
Jersey. It was there that he met
mentor, friend and Monsignor
Darcy's real-life model, Father
Cyril Webster Sigourney Fay
(1875-1919). In 1913 he enteredPrinceton University and his love
of theatre came to the fore--he
wrote many scripts for the
Princeton Triangle Club's
musicals including Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!
(1914). He also hadstories
printed in The Princeton Tiger
and the Nassau Literary
Magazine. Fitzgerald met many
lifelong friends at Princeton
including John Peale Bishop and
EdmundWilson. His amateur
play titles include The Girl From
Lazy J (1911), Coward (1913),
and Assorted Spirits (1914).
In 1917 Fitzgerald left Princeton
to join the army