SPOTLIGHTER

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY FITZGERALD was named after his ancestor, the Baltimore attorney who wrote the words to the "Star Spangled Banner." F. Scott was born in St. Paul, Minn., 40 years ago. At Princeton he spent his first year writing a Triangle show, therefore flunked algebra, trig, and associated studies. The show was a hit. By tutoring during the summer, he successfully got back to Princeton the next year, and played a chorus girl in his show.

He left college to go to war, watched the excitement wild-eyed, as did Ernest Hemingway. His This Side of Paradise in 1920 was greeted as the first authentic novel of college life, a nervous, vibrant chronicle of post-war and youth and America. Like Hemingway, handsome active, neurotic Fitzgerald can be read in Esquire while the critics pronounce Fitzgerald and Hemingway no longer important to American literature.