F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short story writer, considered one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. He is best known for The Great Gatsby (1925), one of the most iconic novels of the Jazz Age and a critical examination of the American Dream. His elegant prose and keen insight into the society of his time made him a defining voice of modernist literature. Fitzgerald gained fame with This Side of Paradise (1920), a novel that explored the post-war experiences of young Americans. However, it was The Great Gatsby (1925) that cemented his literary legacy. Set in the 1920s, the novel portrays the opulence and emptiness of high society through the character of Jay Gatsby, a man obsessed with the past and an unattainable love. Despite his early success, Fitzgerald struggled with financial difficulties and personal hardships, exacerbated by Zelda's mental illness and his own alcoholism. He moved to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter, but his health deteriorated, and he died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of 44. Although his work was not fully appreciated during his lifetime, The Great Gatsby later became one of the most studied and celebrated novels in American literature. Fitzgerald is remembered as the chronicler of the "Jazz Age," a writer who masterfully captured the beauty and tragedy of ambition, wealth, and disillusionment.