Fitzgerald is esteemed as one of the most significant American authors of the twentieth century. During his time, he positioned himself as the voice of the "Lost Generation," representing Americans born in the 1890s who matured during World War I. He completed four novels, left an unfinished fifth, and penned numerous short stories exploring themes of youth, despair, and aging. His profound emotional candor garners admiration from many. His protagonists, often handsome, confident, and doomed, shine brightly before meeting tragic fates, while his heroines are typically beautiful, complex, and captivating. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, into an upper-middle-class Roman Catholic family, Fitzgerald was named after his distant renowned relative, Francis Scott Key, although he was commonly known as 'Scott.' Fitzgerald spent portions of his early years in Buffalo, New York, where his father was employed by Procter & Gamble (1898-1901 and 1903-1908). After his father's dismissal, the family returned to Minnesota, and Fitzgerald attended Saint Paul Academy and Summit School from 1908 to 1911. He later enrolled in Newman School, a preparatory institution in Hackensack, New Jersey, from 1911 to 1912. Entering Princeton University in 1913, he befriended future critics and writers Edmund Wilson (Class of 1916) and John Peale Bishop (Class of 1917). Struggling academically during his three-year tenure at the university, Fitzgerald withdrew in 1917 to join the United States Army following America's entry into World War I. Worried about the possibility of dying in the war and determined to establish himself as a writer, Fitzgerald penned a novel titled "The Romantic Egotist" while undergoing officer training at Camp Zachary Taylor and Camp Sheridan. Despite receiving praise from the editor at Charles Scribner's Sons, the publisher declined to release the novel. Fitzgerald's military service concluded without being deployed to Europe, coinciding closely with the end of World War I.