1853

Birth of Edward Fitzgerald at “Glenmary” farm near Rockville in Montgomery County, Maryland.

 

1858

Birth of Anthony D. Sayre in Tuskegee, Alabama.
 

1860

Birth of Mary (“Mollie”) McQuillan in St. Paul, Minnesota. Birth of Minnie Buckner Machen in Eddyville, Kentucky.

 

June 1884

Marriage of Anthony Sayre and Minnie Machen at “Mineral Mount”, near Eddyville, Kentucky.

 

13 February 1890

Marriage of Edward Fitzgerald and Mollie McQuillan in Washington, D.C.

 

24 September 1896

Birth of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald at 481 Laurel Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

April 1898

After failure of his St. Paul furniture factory, Edward Fitzgerald takes job as salesman with Procter & Gamble in Buffalo, New York.

 

24 July 1900

Birth of Zelda Sayre at South Street, Montgomery, Alabama.

 

January 1901

Fitzgerald family moves to Syracuse, New York.

 

July 1901

Birth of Annabel Fitzgerald, FSF’s sister.

 

September 1903

Fitzgerald family moves back to Buffalo.

 

1907

Sayre family moves to 6 Pleasant Avenue, Zelda’s home until her marriage.

 

March 1908

Edward Fitzgerald loses his job.

 

July 1908

The Fitzgerald family returns to St. Paul.  FSF enters St. Paul Academy in September.

 

1909

Judge Sayre of the City Court is appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama.

 

October 1909

Publication of “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage” in St. Paul Academy Now & ThenòFSF’s first appearance in print.

 

August 1911

FSF writes his first play, The Girl from Lazy J, produced in St. Paul.

 

September 1911

FSF enters Newman School, Hackensack, New Jersey.

 

August 1912

Production of FSF’s second play, The Captured Shadow, in St. Paul.

 

November 1912

FSF meets Father Sigourney Fay and Shane Leslie.

 

August 1913

Production of FSF’s third play, “Coward,”  in St. Paul.

 

September 1913

FSF enters Princeton University with Class of 1917; meets Edmund Wilson ’16 and John Peale Bishop ’17.

 

September 1914

Production of FSF’s fourth play, Assorted Spirits, in St. Paul.

 

Fall 1914

FSF contributes to Princeton Tiger.  Zelda Sayre enters Sidney Lanier High School.

 

December 1914

Production of Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!, FSF’s first Princeton Triangle Club show.

 

4 January 1915

FSF meets Ginevra King, his first serious romantic interest, in St. Paul.

 

April 1915

“Shadow Laurels,” a play, is FSF’s first publication in Nassau Literary Magazine.

 

June 1915

FSF’s “The Ordeal,” later thoroughly revised as “Benediction,” is his first story published in Nassau Literary Magazine.

 

28 November 1915

FSF drops out of Princeton for remainder of junior year.

 

December 1915

Production by Triangle Club of  The Evil Eye, for which FSF wrote lyrics.

 

September 1916

FSF returns to Princeton as member of Class of 1918.

 

December 1916

Production of Triangle Club of Safety First, for which FSF wrote lyrics.

 

26 October 1917

FSF receives commission as infantry 2nd lieutenant.

 

20 November 1917

FSF reports to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; begins novel “The Romantic Egotist.”

 

End of February 1918

FSF completes first draft of “The Romantic Egotist” on leave at Princeton; submits novel to Scribners.

 

15 March 1918

FSF reports to Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky.

 

April 1918

FSF transferred to Camp Gordon, Georgia.

 

May 1918

Zelda Sayre  graduates from Sidney Lanier High School.

 

June 1918

FSF reports to Camp Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama.

 

July 1918

FSF and Zelda Sayre meet at country club dance in Montgomery.

 

August 1918

Scribners declines “The Romantic Egotist”; revised typescript rejected in October.

 

26 October 1918

FSF reports to Camp Mills, Long Island, to await embarkation; war ends before unit sent overseas.

 

Late November 1918

FSF returns to Camp Sheridan; becomes aide-de-camp to General J. A. Ryan.

 

February 1919

FSF discharged from army. Planning to marry Zelda Sayre, he goes to New York and works for the Barron Collier advertising agency; lives in room at 200 Claremont Avenue and tries unsuccessfully to break into the magazine market.

 

Spring 1919

FSF visits Montgomery in April, May and June as Zelda Sayre remains reluctant to commit herself to marriage.

 

June 1919

Zelda Sayre breaks engagement.

 

July-August 1919

FSF quits advertising job and returns to St. Paul; rewrites novel while living with parents at 599 Summit Avenue.

 

September 1919

The Smart Set publishes “Babes in the Woods,” FSF’s first commercial story sale.

 

16 September 1919

Maxwell Perkins of Scribners accepts novel, now titled This Side of Paradise.

 

November 1919

FSF becomes client of Harold Ober at Reynolds agency. First sale to The Saturday Evening Post: “Head and Shoulders.”  FSF visits Zelda Sayre in Montgomery.

 

November 1919-February 1920

The Smart Set publishes “The Debutante,” “Porcelain and Pink,” “Benediction,” and “Dalyrimple Goes Wrong.”

 

Mid-January 1920

FSF lives in boarding house at 2900 Prytania Street in New Orleans, where he stays less than a month. Engagement to Zelda Sayre resumes during his visits to Montgomery.

 

March-May 1920

“Myra Meets His Family,” “The Camel’s Back,” “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” “The Ice Palace,” and “The Offshore Pirate” appear in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

26 March 1920

Publication of This Side of Paradise.

 

3 April 1920

Marriage of FSF and Zelda Sayre at rectory of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Honeymoon at Biltmore Hotel.

 

May-September 1920

Fitzgeralds rent house at Westport, Connecticut, where FSF works on The Beautiful and Damned.

 

July 1920

Publication of  “May Day” in The Smart Set.

 

Summer 1920

Fitzgeralds drive to Montgomery; return to Westport by mid-August.

 

10 September 1920

Publication of Flappers and Philosophers, FSF’s first short-story collection.

 

October 1920-April 1921

Fitzgeralds take apartment at 38 West 59th Street, New York City.

 

3 May-July 1921

Fitzgeralds make first trip to Europe; sail to England, then visit France and Italy. Return home and visit Montgomery.

 

August 1921

Fitzgeralds travel to St. Paul; rent house at Dellwood, White Bear Lake.

 

September 1921-March 1922

The Beautiful and Damned serialized in Metropolitan Magazine.

 

26 October 1921

Birth of the Fitzgeralds’ daughter, Scottie.

 

November 1921-June 1922

Fitzgeralds rent house at 626 Goodrich Avenue, St. Paul.

 

4 March 1922

Publication of The Beautiful and Damned.

 

2 April 1922

“Friend Husband’s Latest,” a tongue-in-cheek review of The Beautiful and Damned that is ZF’s first commercial publication, appears in The New York Tribune.

 

Summer 1922

Fitzgeralds move to White Bear Yacht Club.

 

June 1922

Publication of “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” in The Smart Set.

 

22 September 1922

Publication of Tales of the Jazz Age, FSF’s second collection of short stories.

 

Mid-October 1922-April 1924

Fitzgeralds rent house at 6 Gateway Drive in Great Neck, Long Island. Friendship with Ring Lardner.

 

December 1922

Publication of “Winter Dreams” in Metropolitan Magazine.

 

27 April 1923

Publication of FSF’s play The Vegetable.

 

19 November 1923

The Vegetable fails at tryout in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

 

5 April 1924

“How to live on $36,000 a Year” published in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

Mid-April 1924

Fitzgeralds sail for France.

 

May 1924

Fitzgeralds visit Paris, then leave for Riviera; stop at Grimm’s Park Hotel in Hyères and settle in June at Villa Marie, Valescure, St. Raphaël.

 

June 1924

Publication of “Absolution” in The American Mercury.

 

July 1924

ZF becomes involved with French aviator Edouard Jozan.  Publication of “‘The Sensible Thing’” in Liberty.

 

Summer 1924 

Fitzgeralds meet Gerald and Sara Murphy at Cap d’Antibes.

 

 Summer-Fall 1924

FSF writes The Great Gatsby.

 

ca. 10 October 1924

FSF writes to Maxwell Perkins about promising young American writer Ernest Hemingway.

 

October 1924-Februrary 1925

Fitzgeralds at Hôtel des Princes, Rome, where FSF revises galleys of The Great Gatsby.

 

February 1925

Fitzgeralds travel to Capri; at Hotel Tiberio.

 

10 April 1925

Publication of The Great Gatsby.

 

Late April 1925

Fitzgeralds move to Paris; rent apartment at 14 rue de Tilsitt.

 

May 1925

FSF meets Ernest Hemingway in Dingo bar.

 

Summer 1925

FSF starts planning Francis Melarky version of Tender Is the Night.

 

August 1925

Fitzgeralds leave Paris for month at Antibes.

 

January 1926

ZF takes “cure” at Salies-de-Béarn.

 

January and February 1926

Publication of “The Rich Boy” in Redbook Magazine.

 

February 1926

Play version of The Great Gatsby, by Owen Davis, produced on Broadway.

 

26 February 1926

Publication of All the Sad Young Men, FSF’s third short-story collection.

 

Early March 1926

Fitzgeralds return to Riviera and rent Villa Paquita at Juan-les-Pins.

 

May 1926

Hemingways join Murphys and Fitzgeralds on Riviera. Fitzgeralds move to Villa St. Louis, Juan-les-Pins where they remain until end of 1926. “How to Waste Material: A Note on My Generation” is published in The Bookman.

 

December 1926

Fitzgeralds return to America.

 

January 1927

Fitzgeralds go to Hollywood so that FSF can work on “Lipstick” (unproduced) for United Artists. They meet young actress Lois Moran.

 

March 1927- March 1928

Fitzgeralds rent “Ellerslie,” near Wilmington, Delaware. ZF begins ballet lessons.

 

April 1928

Fitzgeralds return to Europe.

 

April-August 1928

Fitzgeralds rent apartment at 58 rue de Vaugirard, Paris.

 

28 April 1928

Publication in The Saturday Evening Post of “The Scandal Detectives,” first of eight-story Basil Duke Lee series.

 

Mid-summer 1928

ZF begins ballet training with Mme. Lubov Egorova in Paris.

 

7 October 1928

Fitzgeralds return to America.

 

October 1928-March 1929

Fitzgeralds at “Ellerslie.”

 

2 March 1929

Publication of “The Last of the Belles” in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

March 1929

Fitzgeralds return to Europe; travel from Genoa along Riviera, then to Paris.

 

June 1929

Fitzgeralds leave Paris for Riviera; rent Villa Fleur des Bois, Cannes.

 

July 1929

Publication of ZF’s “The Original Follies Girl” in College Humor.

 

October 1929

Fitzgeralds return by car to Paris by way of Provence; take apartment at 10 rue Pergolese.

 

February 1930

FSF and ZF travel to North Africa.

 

5 April 1930

Publication in The Saturday Evening Post of “First Blood,” first of five-story Josephine Perry series.

 

23 April-11 May 1930  

Suffering her first emotional breakdown, ZF is hospitalized at Malmaison Clinic outside Paris; she discharges herself.

 

22 May 1930 

ZF is hospitalized at Val-Mont Clinic in Glion, Switzerland.

 

5 June 1930

ZF enters Prangins clinic at Nyon, Switzerland.

 

Summer and Fall 1930

FSF lives in Switzerland.

 

11 October 1930 

“One Trip Abroad,” the story of an American couple who deteriorate in Europe,  published in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

26 January 1931

Death of Edward Fitzgerald. FSF returns alone to America to attend burial; reports to Sayres about ZF.

 

21 February 1931

Publication of “Babylon Revisited” in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

July 1931

Fitzgeralds spend two weeks at Lake Annecy, France.

 

15 August 1931

“Emotional Bankruptcy” published in The Saturday Evening Post.

 

15 September 1931

ZF released from Prangins. Fitzgeralds return to America.

 

September 1931-Spring 1932

Fitzgeralds rent house at 819 Felder Avenue in Montgomery. FSF goes to Hollywood alone to work on Red-Headed Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

 

17 November 1931

Death of Judge Sayre.

 

12 February 1932

ZF suffers second breakdown; enters Phipps Psychiatric Clinic of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

 

March 1932

ZF completes first draft of her novel, Save Me the Waltz, while at Phipps Clinic.

 

20 May 1932-November 1933

FSF rents “La Paix” at Towson outside Baltimore.

 

26 June 1932

ZF discharged from Phipps; joins family at “La Paix.”

 

October 1932 

“Crazy Sunday” published in The American Mercury.

 

7 October 1932

Publication of ZF’s novel, Save Me the Waltz.

 

26 June-1 July 1933

ZF’s play, Scandalabra, produced by Vagabond Junior Players in Baltimore.

 

11 October 1933  

“Ring,” FSF’s memorial tribute to Ring Lardner, published in The New Republic.

 

December 1933

FSF rents house at 1307 Park Avenue, Baltimore.

 

January-April 1934

Serialization of Tender Is the Night in Scribner’s Magazine.

 

12 February 1934 

ZF’s third breakdown; returns to Phipps Clinic.

 

March 1934  

ZF Transferred to Craig House, Beacon, New York.

 

29 March-30 April 1934

ZF’s art exhibition in New York.

 

12 April 1934

Publication of Tender Is the Night.

 

19 May 1934

ZF transferred back to Sheppard-Pratt Hospital outside Baltimore.

 

February 1935

FSF at Oak Hall Hotel in Tryon, North Carolina.

 

20 March 1935

Publication of Taps at Reveille, FSF’s fourth short-story collection.

 

May 1935

FSF spends summer at Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina.

 

September 1935

FSF takes apartment at Cambridge Arms, Charles Street, Baltimore.

 

November 1935

FSF at Skyland Hotel in Hendersonville, North Carolina; begins writing “The Crack-Up” essays.

 

February-April 1936

“The Crack-Up” essays published in Esquire.

 

8 April 1936

ZF enters Highland Hospital in Asheville.

 

July-December 1936

FSF returns to Grove Park Inn.

 

August 1936

Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”òwith its reference to “poor Scott Fitzgerald”òis published in Esquire, which includes in the same issue FSF’s “Afternoon of an Author.”

 

September 1936

Death of Mollie McQuillan Fitzgerald in Washington. Scottie enters Ethel Walker School in Connecticut.

 

January-June 1937

FSF at Oak Hall Hotel in Tryon, North Carolina.

 

6 March 1937

“‘Trouble,’” FSF’s last story in The Saturday Evening Post, is published.

 

July 1937

Deeply in debt, FSF goes to Hollywood for third time with six-month MGM contract at $1,000 a week. Lives at Garden of Allah on Sunset Boulevard; meets movie columnist Sheilah Graham 14 July.

 

July 1937-February 1938

FSF works on Three Comrades script, his only screen credit.

 

First week of September 1937

FSF visits ZF in Asheville; they spend four days in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

 

December 1937

FSF’s MGM contract renewed for one year at $1,250 a week.

 

February 1938-January 1939

 FSF works on scripts for “Infidelity,” Marie Antoinette, The Women, and Madame Curie.

 

End of March 1938

Fitzgeralds spend Easter at Virginia Beach, Virginia.

 

April 1938

FSF rents bungalow at Malibu Beach, California.

 

September 1938

Scottie Fitzgerald enters Vassar College.

 

November 1938

FSF moves to cottage at “Belly Acres,” Encino.

 

December 1938

FSF’s MGM contract not renewed.

 

January 1939

FSF works briefly on Gone With the Wind.

 

10-12 February 1939

FSF travels to Dartmouth College with Budd Schulberg to work on Winter Carnival; fired for drunkenness.  FSF is hospitalized in New York.

 

March 1939-October 1940

FSF takes free-lance jobs at Paramount, Universal, Twentieth Century-Fox, Goldwyn and Columbia studios.

 

April 1939

Fitzgeralds travel to Cuba. FSF goes on bender; is hospitalized on return to New York.

 

July 1939

FSF breaks with his longtime agent Harold Ober.

 

Summer 1939

FSF begins work on The Last Tycoon.

 

September 1939

FSF unsuccessfully attempts to sell serial rights to his work-in-progress to Collier’s.

 

January 1940

Publication in Esquire of  “Pat Hobby’s Christmas Wish,” first of seventeen-story series.

 

March-August 1940

FSF works on “Cosmopolitan” (“Babylon Revisited”) script; it is not produced.

 

ca. 15 April 1940

ZF discharged from Highland Hospital; lives with her mother at 322 Sayre Street in Montgomery.

 

May 1940

FSF moves to 1403 North Laurel Avenue, Hollywood.

 

21 December 1940

FSF dies of heart attack at Sheilah Graham’s apartment, 1443 North Hayworth Avenue, Hollywood.

 

27 December 1940

FSF buried in Rockville Union Cemetery, Rockville, Maryland.

 

27 October 1941

Publication of The Last Tycoon.

 

12 August 1945

Publication of The Crack-Up.

 

September 1945

Publication of The Portable F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 

November 1947

ZF returns to Highland Hospital from Montgomery.

 

10 March 1948

ZF dies in fire at Highland Hospital.

 

17 March 1948

ZF buried with FSF.

 

18 November 1950

Scottie Fitzgerald Lanahan donates the Fitzgerald Papers to Princeton University.

 

7 November 1975

FSF and ZF reinterred in the Fitzgerald family plot at St. Mary’s church, Rockville, Maryland.

 

18 June 1986

Scottie Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith dies; she is buried with her parents at St. Mary’s church, Rockville.

 

This page updated December 4, 2003.
Copyright 2003, the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.
URL http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/chronology.html