Zelda Fitzgerald, American author and poet (d. 1948)
Zelda Fitzgerald (née Sayre; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American socialite, novelist, and painter.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she was noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald as "the first American flapper". She and Scott became emblems of the Jazz Age, for which they are still celebrated. The immediate success of Scott's first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), brought them into contact with high society, but their marriage was plagued by wild drinking, infidelity and bitter recriminations. Ernest Hemingway, whom Fitzgerald disliked, blamed her for Scott's declining literary output. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, she was increasingly confined to specialist clinics, and the couple were living apart when Scott died suddenly in 1940. Fitzgerald died over seven years later in a fire at the hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, in which she was a patient.
A 1970 biography by Nancy Milford was on the short list of contenders for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1992, Fitzgerald was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.
1900Jul, 24
Zelda Fitzgerald
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Events on 1900
- 16Jan
American Samoa
The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands. - 24Mar
New York City Subway
Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. - 5Apr
Linear B
Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B. - 2Jul
Lake Constance
The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. - 14Jul
Boxer Rebellion
Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion.