F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Best known for The Great Gatsby (1925) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922), the main themes of his work were love, society and class, aspiration, and loss. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24,1896, his father, Edward was from Maryland and his mother, Mary McQuillan was the daughter of an Irish immigrant. His first interaction with the art of storytelling was when a detective story he wrote was published in the school newspaper when he was thirteen. He moved to New York City to pursue his literary career. His work belongs with the best of his contemporaries.