Global InformationZelda Fitzgerald information
Zelda Fitzgerald | |
|---|---|
 Fitzgerald in February 1920 | |
| Born | Zelda Sayre July 24, 1900 Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | March 10, 1948 (aged 47) Asheville, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Period | 1920–1948 |
| Spouse |
F. Scott Fitzgerald
(m. 1920; died 1940) |
| Children | Frances Scott Fitzgerald |
| Signature | |
 | |
Zelda Fitzgerald (née Sayre; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, playwright, and socialite.[1] Born in Montgomery, Alabama, to a wealthy Southern family, she became locally famous for her beauty and high spirits.[1] In 1920, she married writer F. Scott Fitzgerald after the popular success of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise. The novel catapulted the young couple into the public eye, and she became known in the national press as the first American flapper.[2] Due to their wild antics and incessant partying, she and her husband became regarded in the newspapers as the enfants terribles of the Jazz Age.[3][4] Alleged infidelity and bitter recriminations soon undermined their marriage. After traveling abroad to Europe, Zelda's mental health deteriorated, and she had suicidal and homicidal tendencies which required psychiatric care.[a][6][7] Her doctors diagnosed Zelda with schizophrenia,[8][9] although later posthumous diagnoses posit bipolar disorder.[10]
While institutionalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, she authored the 1932 novel Save Me the Waltz, a semi-autobiographical account of her early life in the American South during the Jim Crow era and her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald.[11] Upon its publication by Scribner's, the novel garnered mostly negative reviews and experienced poor sales.[11] The critical and commercial failure of Save Me the Waltz disappointed Zelda and led her to pursue her other interests as a playwright and a painter.[12] In Fall 1932, she completed a stage play titled Scandalabra,[13] but Broadway producers unanimously declined to produce the play.[12] Disheartened, Zelda next attempted to paint watercolors but, when her husband arranged their exhibition in 1934, the critical response proved equally disappointing.[12][14]
While the two lived apart, Scott died of occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis in December 1940.[15] After her husband's death, she attempted to write a second novel Caesar's Things, but her recurrent voluntary institutionalization for mental illness interrupted her writing, and she failed to complete the work.[16] By this time, she had endured over ten years of electroshock therapy and insulin shock treatments,[17][18] and she suffered from severe memory loss.[19] In March 1948, while sedated and locked in a room on the fifth floor of Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, she died in a fire.[16][20] Her body was identified by her dental records and one of her slippers.[21] A follow-up investigation raised the possibility that the fire had been a work of arson by a disgruntled or mentally disturbed hospital employee.[22][20]
A 1970 biography by Nancy Milford was a finalist for the National Book Award.[23] After the success of Milford's biography, scholars viewed Zelda's artistic output in a new light.[24] Her novel Save Me the Waltz became the focus of literary studies exploring different facets of the work: how her novel contrasted with Scott's depiction of their marriage in Tender Is the Night,[25] and how 1920s consumer culture placed mental stress on modern women.[26] Concurrently, renewed interest began in Zelda's artwork, and her paintings were posthumously exhibited in the United States and Europe.[27] In 1992, she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.[28]
- ^ a b Tate 1998, p. 85.
- ^ Fitzgerald 2004, p. 46.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Enfants Terribleswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Curnutt 2004, pp. 31, 62; Bruccoli 2002, p. 131.
- ^ Milford 1970, p. 156.
- ^ Milford 1970, p. 156; Stamberg 2013.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Potential Suicide Attemptwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Forel Diagnosiswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Bleuler Diagnosiswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Stamberg 2013.
- ^ a b Bruccoli 2002, pp. 327–328.
- ^ a b c Bruccoli 2002, pp. 343, 362.
- ^ Bruccoli 2002, p. 343.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Artwork Exhibitionwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Bruccoli 2002, pp. 486–489.
- ^ a b Milford 1970, pp. 382–383.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Electroshock Therapywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Insulin Shock Treatmentswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cline 2002, p. 351.
- ^ a b Smith 2022.
- ^ Young 1979; Smith 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Arson Possibilitywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sandomir 2022.
- ^ Davis 1995, p. 327; Tavernier-Courbin 1979, p. 23.
- ^ Tavernier-Courbin 1979, p. 22.
- ^ Davis 1995, p. 327.
- ^ Adair 2005.
- ^ Alabama Women's Hall of Fame 1992.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).