Childhood Influences Impact the Writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Childhood Influences Impact the Writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald

On Wednesday February 12 of 1890 F. Scott Fitzgerald's parents were married in Washington D.C. Six years later on September 24, 1896 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born at his home 481 Laurel Ave. in St. Paul, Minnesota. His two infant older sisters had died from a violent influenza so that by the time Fitzgerald came along Mollie Fitzgerald had become the proverbial nightmare that known as an overprotective mother. Fitzgerald's mother was no traditional mother though, for she was known for her eccentricities. These eccentricities disturbed young Scott's life, "Fitzgerald later described his mother as 'half insane with pathological nervous worry'" (Bruccoli 15), but nothing worried anyone in the family so much as his father's failure to hold down a job. It was because his father lost his job as a wicker furniture manufacturer and salesman the family was forced to move from St. Paul to Buffalo in April of 1898, where his father began work for Proctor and Gamble. In January of 1901 the family moved from Buffalo to Syracuse where Edward had been transferred by his employer and where, on Sunday July 21, 1901 Scott's younger sister Annabel was born. Just two years later the family was back in Buffalo and just five years after that the family had returned to St. Paul and Grandma McQuillan's money.

Grandma, born Louisa McQuillan, was a widow. Her husband Phillip Francis McQuillan was a man of Irish ancestry who had been a successful business man and grocer and when he died at age 43 he left behind a good $500,000 dollars to the family. Because of their financial problems the Fitzgerald family was often reliant on family money to survive. The Fitzgera...

... middle of paper ...

...-occupation with glamour describe some of the main themes of his writing and indeed were some of the main themes of his childhood.

Works Cited

Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1981

Caudle, Bill. "F. Scott Fitzgerald Walking Tour of St. Paul, MN". January 8, 2003. September 9, 2003 <http://home.att.net/~caudle/fscotwlk.htm>

Prigozy, Ruth. "The Fitzgeralds". F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. September 9, 2003. <http://www.zeldafitzgerald.com/fitzgeralds/index.asp>

The Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina. "Quotations". January 28, 1997. University of South Carolina. September 9, 2003 <http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/quotes/quotes1.html>

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