" Fitzgerald's more ambitious stories, such as "May Day" and "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," were published in The Smart Set, which had a smaller audience. The publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda in New York. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald endeavored to earn a solid literary reputation but his playboy image impeded the proper assessment of his work. After a wild summer in Westport, Connecticut, the Fitzgeralds took an apartment in New York City, where he wrote his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, a story of of Anthony and Gloria Patch. When Zelda became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled in St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921. Fitzgerald expected to become rich from his play, The Vegetable, so in the fall of 1922 they moved to Great Neck, Long Island, in order to be near Broadway. The political satire--subtitled "From President to Postman"-- failed at its tryout in November 1923, and Fitzgerald got out of debt by writing more short stories. The distractions of Great Neck and New York prevented Fitzgerald from making progress on his third novel. During this time he drank more. He became an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda would drink occasionally, but she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent domestic fights, usually triggered by drinking.Literary critics didn’t want to refer to Fitzgerald as a serious author. His reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that he was an irresponsible writer; yet he was a painstaking reviser whose fiction went through layers of drafts. Fitzgerald's lyrical and witty style evoked many emotions in his readers. When critics objected to Fitzgerald's concern with love and success, his response was: "But, my God! it was my ...
