American Literature has evolved that it has now become as educational and well-known as English Literature. The reason behind this is that there were many distinguished authors and their great writings, such as Edgar Allen Poe (The Tell-Tale Heart), Harper Lee (To Kill a Mocking Bird), Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men). One author who also stand out of the crowd is F. Scott Fitzgerald.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, named after his ancestor, Francis Scott Key, who was the author of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, was born on September 24, 1896, in his home town St. Paul, Minnesota. He was brought up in a middle-classed family. However, he was considered as a bright and ambitious person. His parents were both catholic, so he attended St Paul academy, where his first piece of writing was published in the school newspaper, until he was 15, where he was to Newman School.
…show more content…
He then started to work on a novel for a larger literary success, which came to be ‘This Side of Paradise’. This novel was an improvisation of two earlier versions of the novel, ‘The Romantic Egotist’ which were both rejected by the publishing company, ‘Scribner’s’. However, after Fitzgerald finished writing his new novel, he sent it to ‘Scribner’s’ once more. They were again displeased about the novel, until Max Perkins (the Scribner’s Editor) gave pressure to the publishers and in the end they all agreed. Therefore, when Fitzgerald received a letter of his novel’s acceptance, he knew that he had made his dream come true.
‘This Side of Paradise’ was a huge success for Fitzgerald: 3000 copies of the novel were printed at first on March 20, 1920, but after three days, it was sold out. More copies of the novel were produced. No one knew that his novel was going to become so popular. This also made him a