In 1918, while assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama, the course of his life changed forever. The 22-year-old Scott met and fell in love with then 18-year-old debutante Zelda Sayre. Zelda, youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge, refused marriage, however, until Scott could support her in the manner to which she was accustomed. After being discharged from the army in February 1919, Fitzgerald moved to New York and took up work with an advertising agency, hoping to earn enough money so he and Zelda could be married. By June of 1919, Zelda had tired of waiting for Scott to earn his fortune and broke their engagement.
During the summer of 1919, Fitzgerald quit the ad business to return to St. Paul to rewrite The Romantic Egotist. In September of the same year noted Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins accepted This Side of Paradise, as the novel was now called, for publication. One week after its publication, Scott and Zelda were married in New York. The novel meant instant success for the young author and pushed the newlyweds into the limelight. Together, Scott and Zelda became synonymous with life in the 1920s. In many regards, the Fitzgeralds’ lifestyle read like something out of one of Scott’s novels. Stories of their drinking, dancing, and extravagant lifestyle surround the couple. Over the years, they traveled between the United States and Europe (especially France) extensively, becoming (at least for a while) part of “The Lost Generation” of American expatriates in Paris. In 1921 Zelda gave birth to the couple’s only child, a daughter named Frances Scott Fitzgerald (known as Scottie).
