F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, Fitzgerald attended Princeton but left before graduating and later served in the U.S. Army during World War I. His first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), made him famous while he was still young, and helped define the mood of a new postwar generation.

He went on to write novels including The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Last Tycoon (left unfinished at his death), along with many short stories for popular magazines. His work often explores money, class, longing, and the gap between dazzling dreams and difficult reality.

Fitzgerald died in 1940, but his reputation only grew after his lifetime. Today he is widely regarded as one of the major American writers of the 20th century, especially for the elegance of his prose and the lasting power of The Great Gatsby.