F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. After graduating from Princeton University, he served in the United States Army during World War I. Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), was a national bestseller, and he went on to publish three more complete novels and over one hundred popular short stories over the course of his lifetime. The Great Gatsby (1925), his best-known work, remains a timeless examination of social class, wealth, and the American Dream. Fitzgerald spent his final years writing screenplays in Los Angeles. He died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940 at the age of forty-four, leaving behind the unfinished novel The Love of the Last Tycoon.
