Quote of the Day by F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby,”The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are…”

There are some books that make the impression of a lifestime. The Great Gatsby, a classic by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows the glamor and emptiness of America in the 1920s. He came from a poor family and became famous as a writer despite personal successes and failures. He wrote stories that showed how fragile the American Dream is. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His family had money problems. His father sold furniture and then got a shaky job as a soda executive. Scott went to top schools like Newman and Princeton University, but he dropped out in 1917 before graduating to join the Army during World War I. He was stationed in Alabama when he fell in love with 17-year-old Zelda Sayre, a flapper beauty from a well-known family. She turned down his first offer because he wasn’t rich enough, which made him want to succeed even more.Fitzgerald’s big break came quickly. Zelda changed her mind while she was editing her first novel, This Side of Paradise, which is a semi-autobiographical story about love and youth in Princeton. The book blew up in 1920, selling 49,000 copies and making him famous overnight at the age of 23. He married Zelda that April and got caught up in the Jazz Age whirlwind of parties, trips to Europe, and writing short stories for magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. Their lavish lifestyle was paid for by hits like The Beautiful and the Damned (1922). By 1924, he was living on Long Island’s North Shore, where there were loud parties all the time. He was no longer envious of the rich.The Great GatsbyFitzgerald put a lot of his own feelings into The Great Gatsby, which Scribner’s published on April 10, 1925. The book is based on his obsession with Ginevra King, his first love, who her rich family thought he wasn’t good enough for, and Zelda’s doubts. He wrote it on the French Riviera after parties on Long Island that were like Gatsby’s fancy but empty parties. Editor Maxwell Perkins asked for changes to make the writing tighter. Fitzgerald thought it was his best work, even though it only sold 20,000 copies at first and got bad reviews. It combined a lyrical style with sharp social criticism. After Gatsby, Fitzgerald had a lot of problems. He drank too much, Zelda had mental breakdowns, and writing scripts in Hollywood barely paid the bills. He died on December 21, 1940, at the age of 44, thinking he had been forgotten because he was in debt and Zelda was in a mental hospital. World War II brought back interest—GIs loved Gatsby as the best American story. In the 1950s, it was at the top of high school lists, representing the excesses of the Jazz Age, class differences, and doomed love. Movies like the 1974 and 2013 versions made it even more popular, and phrases like “green light” became common. Today, people call it the Great American Novel because it is short (47,000 words) and gives insight into the illusions of wealth.LegacyFitzgerald looks at the Roaring Twenties in detail: Gatsby’s wealth comes from illegal bars, flappers dance in a world of moral decay, and cars represent progress that doesn’t last. The green dock light stands for dreams that can’t come true. His sparse writing—”So we beat on, boats against the current”—is a reflection of how pointless life is. Fame after death proved him right; now royalties pay for scholarships. One of his most famous quotes is, “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” This touching line brings to mind deep loneliness in the middle of a disaster. It shows the shock that comes when everything you worked so hard to build-your dreams, your relationships, your status—falls apart and you can only watch in shock. It usually shows how people become emotionally paralyzed when they lose someone, when action doesn’t work against inevitable ruin. There are things in this world one cannot control and hence one has no choice but to bear with them.