As a young man, Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, where, ironically, his writing interfered with his coursework. He was placed on academic probation, eventually dropped out, and joined the U.S. Army.
Now commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry, he was shipped off to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, Alabama. Here he met and fell in love with "golden girl" Zelda Sayre.
When Zelda called off the engagement, due to Fitzgerald's lack of fame and fortune, he returned to a previous autobiographical piece, The Romantic Egotist.
His revised novel, This Side of Paradise, was a triumphant success.
F. Scott and Zelda were married and went on to live their now famous lives of heart ache and despair.
Their only child, Scottie Fitzgerald, said about her parents,
"People who live entirely by the fertility of their imaginations are fascinating, brilliant and often charming, but they should be sat next to at dinner parties, not lived with."
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