F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) was born in St Paul, Minnesota, USA, the only son of an upper-middle class Catholic family. Even as a schoolboy in St Paul he was writing, and later at Princeton University he wrote for the college magazine. In 1917 he left Princeton for the army. He wanted to go to Europe, but was sent to Alabama instead. There he met his wife Zelda Sayre. He also began to write his first novel there - followed by a collection of short stories, and finally "The Great Gatsby".

Fitzgerald wrote four other novels, "The Beautiful and Damned," "This Side of Paradise", "Tender is the Night", and "The Last Tycoon" (his last and unfinished work).

Fitzgerald was a true representative of an age - the Jazz Age. He lived through that age and saw it burn itself out. His own life was connected directly to his work. Fitzgerald's novels and short stories have earned a permanent place in American literature.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby; D: based on a vocabulary of 2500 words; edited by Hanne Bitsch Hansen; Easy Reader edition, Aschehoug A/S (Egmont), Denmark