Heritage/History

Digital Heritage Moment: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Digital Heritage Moment: F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1937. Photo by Carl Van Vechten. Courtesy of Library of Congress

F. Scott Fitzgerald was the famous author of The Great Gatsby and other novels chronicling fast life in the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald, an Army officer, met Zelda Sayre, a Montgomery, Ala. debutante, at a dance in 1918. They married soon after.

As Scott Fitzgerald became more famous, the two were caught up in the hectic social world that surrounds beautiful, young celebrities. Their frequent drinking bouts stressed their marriage and fed Zelda’s growing mental instability.

In 1936, Zelda entered Highland Hospital in Asheville for treatment of schizophrenia, never to leave. Scott stayed in Asheville for a while before moving to Hollywood to write movie scripts. He died of a heart attack in 1940. Eight years later, Zelda died in Asheville when fire destroyed the Highland Hospital.

Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. To learn more, visit DigitalHeritage.org. You may also hear Digital Heritage Moments each weekday on radio stations WKSF-FM, WWCU-FM, WMXF-AM, WPEK-AM and WWNC-AM.

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