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F. Scott Fitzgerald Wrote About the 'Roaring Twenties' |
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Written by Richard Thorman |
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VOICE
ONE:
I'm
Shirley Griffith.
VOICE
TWO:
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And I'm
Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we
tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell
about writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
VOICE
ONE:
Early
in nineteen twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was poor and
unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl he wanted to marry had rejected
him. Her family said he could not support her.
Later
that same year, Fitzgerald's first novel, “This Side of Paradise,” was accepted
for publication. He said that when the news arrived in the mail: "I left
my job. I paid my debts, bought a suit of clothes and woke in the morning to a
world of promise. "
He
quickly became rich and famous. That year before “This Side of Paradise” was
published, he said he earned eight hundred dollars by writing. The following
year, with his first book published, he earned eighteen thousand dollars by
writing.
Yet by
the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen forty, at the age of forty-four,
his money was gone, and so was his fame. Most people could not believe that he
had not died years before.
The
problem was that he was so much a part of the age he described, the
"Roaring Twenties. " So when the period ended people thought he must
have ended with it.
VOICE
TWO:
The
nineteen twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the "War to End
All Wars," was over. The twenties ended with a huge drop in stock market
prices that began the Great Depression. Fitzgerald was a representative of the
years of fast living in between.
The
nation's values had changed. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a
good time. People broke the law by drinking alcohol. They danced to jazz music.
Women wore short skirts.
Money
differences between one group of Americans and another had become sharper at
the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the
nineteen twenties, many people believed that gaining the material things one
desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the lives of
people who lived as if that were true.
VOICE
ONE:
There
was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things. "The test of a first-rate
intelligence," he said, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in
the mind at the same time, and still have the ability to act. " His two
opposing ideas involved seeking happiness from material things, and knowing
that material things only brought unhappiness.
Of his
own time, he said: "There seemed no question about what was going to
happen. America was going on the greatest party in its history and there was
going to be plenty to tell about. " Yet if he described only the party,
his writings would have been forgotten when the party ended.
"All
the stories that came into my head," he said, "had a touch of
unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories were ruined, the
diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had not happened yet. But I
was sure that living was not the careless business that people thought. "
Fitzgerald
was able to experience the wild living of the period yet write about its effect
on people as though he were just an observer. That is a major reason his writings
still are popular.
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VOICE
TWO:
Francis
Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the Middle Western city of Saint Paul,
Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother's family there were southern
landowners and politicians. The member of the family for whom he was named had
written the words to "The Star- Spangled Banner," America's national
song.
His
father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went to free public schools
and, when he was fifteen, a costly private school where he learned how the rich
lived.
When F.
Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered Princeton University.
VOICE
ONE:
Fitzgerald
was not a good student. He spent more time writing for school plays and
magazines at Princeton than studying. His poor record troubled him less than
the fact that he was not a good enough athlete to be on the university's
football team.
University
officials warned him he had to do better in his studies or he would be
expelled. So he decided to leave the university after three years to join the
United States Army. It was World War One, but the war ended before he saw
active duty. He met his 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 of
Montgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then she rejected him
when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give her the life she expected.
VOICE
TWO:
Fitzgerald
was crushed. He went to New York City in nineteen-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 than twenty thousand copies of
the book to be sold. The publisher laughed and said five thousand copies of a
first novel would be very good. Within one week, however, twenty thousand
copies of the book were sold.
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Fitzgerals and his wife, Zelda, after they were
married |
At
twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after the novel appeared,
Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald had gained the two goals he
had set for himself.
At this
point the fairy tale should end with the expression: "They lived happily
ever after. " But that was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds.
VOICE
ONE:
Fitzgerald
is reported to have said to his friend, the American writer Ernest Hemingway,
"The very rich are different from you and me. " Hemingway is reported
to have answered, “Yes, they have more money." The exchange tells a
great deal about each writer. Hemingway saw a democratic world where people
were measured by their ability, not by what they owned.
Fitzgerald
saw the deep differences between groups of people that money creates. He
decided to be among the rich.
To do
this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he had time, continued to
write novels. He also continued to live as though his life was one long party.
For
several years he was successful at everything. Editors paid more for a story by
Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he sold everything he wrote. Some
stories were very good. He wrote very fast, though. So some stories were bad.
Even the bad ones, however, had a spirit and a life that belonged to
Fitzgerald. As soon as he had enough good stories, he collected them in a book.
VOICE
TWO:
Fitzgerald
quickly learned that a life of partying all the time did 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. She spent too much money.
He promised himself to live a less costly life. Always, however, he spent more
than he earned from writing.
In
addition to the individual stories, two collections of his stories, “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 in nineteen twenty-two.
VOICE
ONE:
The
novel was well received, but it was nothing like the success of his first
novel.
Fitzgerald
was unhappy with the critics and unhappy with the money the book earned. He and
his wife moved to France with their baby daughter. They made many friends among
the Americans who had fled to Paris. But they failed to cut their living costs.
Fitzgerald
was always in debt. He owed money to his publisher and the man who helped to
sell his writings. In his stories he says repeatedly that no one can have
everything. He seemed to try, though. It looked for a brief time like he might
succeed.
VOICE
TWO:
Fitzgerald
continued to be affected by the problems that would finally kill him -- the
drinking and the debts. Yet by nineteen twenty-five his best novel, “The Great
Gatsby,” was published.
It is
the story of a young man's search for his idea of love. It also is a story of
what the young man must do to win that love before he discovers that it is not
worth having.
Next
week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shall tell you about the
rest of Fitzgerald's short life.
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VOICE
ONE:
This
People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan
Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE
TWO:
And I'm
Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude the story of the life of
writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special English on the Voice of America.