Zelda Sayre was the daughter of a state Supreme Court justice, born into a privileged Southern family in Montgomery, Alabama. As a teenager, she was a rebel, smoking, drinking, and spending time with boys, basically defying the expected norms of a demure Southern girl.
Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
When she was 18, she met F. Scott Fitzgerald who was stationed near her hometown as a volunteer in the Army and their stormy relationship would begin. He was not her only suitor though, and Zelda used that to make him jealous. He left Montgomery when he was almost called up to fight in World War I, but the war ended before he had to leave. He returned to Montgomery and spent four months with Zelda, but she refused to marry him until he had a job and money.
Zelda Helped Him To Become The Writer He Was
She had a love of ballet. Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
Zelda provided inspiration for his characters, but he took more than just inspiration from her. At the time Zelda kept a diary which Fitzgerald showed to his friend Peevie Parrot, who then showed it to George Jean Nathan and they discussed publishing it as “The Diary of a Popular Girl.” He did seem to plagiarize some of her work; when Fitzgerald finished his first novel, This Side of Paradise he took some passages from Zelda’s letters to Fitzgerald. They were married soon after, and she joined him in New York. Marriage did nothing to calm her down though, and she became known for her wild behavior; she and Fitzgerald were kicked out of several hotels because of their unruliness.
She Was A Writer As Well
With Scottie. Source: (Pinterest).
She got pregnant in 1921 and gave birth to their daughter, Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald. Zelda also started a career as a writer, publishing short stories and essays. When she and Fitzgerald moved to France, and Fitzgerald was busy with his career, Zelda started spending her time with a French pilot, Edouard S. Jozan. Eventually, she asked Fitzgerald for a divorce, but he locked her in their house until she agreed to stay with him. Later Jozan would state that they were only friends and had created the story of the affair. Deeply unhappy, one night, Zelda attempted to overdose on sleeping pills, but she did not succeed. This was not her only suicide attempt. One night while they were dining out, Fitzgerald spotted Isadora Duncan and approached her to talk to her. When Duncan ran her fingers through his hair, Zelda threw herself down a set of marble stairs.
Her Novel Was Not Successful While She Was Alive
They then left Europe for Hollywood, and Fitzgerald met a 17-year-old starlet named Lois Moran and began a not-so-secret affair. After two months in Hollywood, they moved to Delaware where Zelda took up painting and ballet. They made Delaware their home for two years before returning to Europe, where she spent time taking ballet classes and writing stories. Unfortunately, the magazine she was writing for wanted to publish her stories under her husband’s name. After grabbing the steering wheel of the car one day in France, and attempting to steer it off a cliff, she checked into a hospital, but left three days later and threw herself into ballet. However, her mental health continued to decline and she agreed to go to a psychiatric facility in Switzerland where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She remained there for a year and three months, before returning home and sailing back to the U.S. Within five months, she was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While there, she wrote a book, Save Me the Waltz which was based on her marriage to Fitzgerald. She sent it to his publisher, who sent it to Fitzgerald. Although the publisher agreed to publish it, they only agreed to a small run and the book was a critical and commercial failure.
Her Death Brought Recognition For Her Work
She then found a gallery to exhibit her earlier paintings, but this too was a failure. Zelda’s mental health declined further, and Fitzgerald hospitalized her in Asheville, North Carolina. He left her in Asheville and went to Hollywood for a time, before returning and taking Zelda to Cuba; he spent the trip drinking, and when they got back to New York, Zelda checked him into a hospital. She was in and out of hospitals for the rest of her life, while Fitzgerald returned to Hollywood, where he died in 1940. While back in Asheville, she began to work on a new novel, Caesar’s Things and her doctors decided to try electroshock therapy. On March 10, 1948, the nurses gave her sedatives to prepare her for a course of treatment and locked her in her room. That night, a fire broke out and she died. She was only 47. Her death was barely noted, and it wasn’t until later that people began to appreciate her work. Her fiction has been evaluated on its own merits, and her remaining artwork has also been reappraised. In 1992, she was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.
