Birth and Family Background

F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, is celebrated as one of the most significant American writers of the 20th century. His full name, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, pays homage to his distant cousin, Francis Scott Key, the author of the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' Fitzgerald's literary career is most renowned for its vivid portrayal of the Jazz Age, a term he coined to describe the cultural and social dynamism of the 1920s. His mother was Mary "Molly" McQuillan Fitzgerald, the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer. His father, Edward Fitzgerald, descended from Irish and English ancestry, and had moved to Minnesota from Maryland after the American Civil War to open a wicker-furniture manufacturing business. Edward's first cousin twice removed, Mary Surratt, was hanged in 1865 for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. #Mooflife #MomentOfLife #F.ScottFitzgerald #JazzAge #TheGreatGatsby #AmericanLiterature #FrancisScottKey