As PBS Newshour explains, Zelda's afflictions stemmed from her brain chemistry (she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic but was more likely suffering from bipolar disorder) and Scott's from his alcoholism. Scott is rumored to have had several affairs himself, but as Alabama Public Radio notes only his relationship with Sheilah Graham in the last years of his life (when Zelda was more or less permanently hospitalized) is a confirmed fact.Īs The Guardian notes, just ten years later they were essentially washed up - Scott was miserably grinding out work in Hollywood to pay the bills, and Zelda's mental state was fragile at best, leaving her flitting in and out of hospitals for the rest of her life. It was a strain that changed their marriage forever. Then Jozan disappeared, devastating Zelda - she attempted suicide a short while afterwards. Zelda fell hard for Jozan and told Scott she wanted a divorce. Blue Ridge Country tells us that Zelda soon met and began an affair with a French man named Edouard Jozan. While this plan produced one of the greatest novels of the modern age, it also left Zelda lonely and bored. As The Washington Post notes, Scott isolated himself that summer in France in order to follow a disciplined schedule writing his third novel, The Great Gatsby. It had been two years since his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Scott had spent much of the time writing feverishly in order to pay the couple's enormous bills. As The Washington Post notes, by 1937 the Fitzgeralds were flat broke.īy 1924, Scott was already in decline. Scott was almost immediately forced to write short fiction in order to bring in extra income, which he felt distracted him from his more important work, but their ever-present debts kept him on a treadmill of working to pay off loans, then borrowing more.

As their granddaughter notes at Literary Hub, Zelda and Scott borrowed heavily to keep things going - from his agent, his editors, even from friends. Scott's second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, was also a bestseller, allowing them to keep up their new lifestyle.Įven at the height of their fame and success, the Fitzgerald's struggled with money, spending it faster than it came in. As Great Writers Inspire notes, they immediately began living beyond their means, paying for lavish houses and expensive dinners, drinking and dancing their nights away. The young couple reveled in their notoriety and their newfound wealth. The novel's success allowed him to marry Zelda and made him a celebrity at the age of 23. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, 1920's This Side of Paradise, was an instant hit and bestseller.

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