How it was written

Fitzgerald built The Great Gatsby from his own first love and the wild parties of Long Island.

1. 
   1915

   A first love

   At 18, Fitzgerald fell in love with Ginevra King, a rich girl from Chicago. Her family turned him down because he was not rich.

2. 
   1922

   Great Neck

   The Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck on Long Island, among the newly rich. It became West Egg in the novel.

3. 
   1924

   The French Riviera

   He finished a rough draft at Saint-Raphaël in the south of France.

4. 
   1924

   The cover came first

   Francis Cugat painted the famous cover while the book was still being written. Fitzgerald loved it and put its eyes into the story.

5. 
   1924

   Finding a title

   He tried Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires, Trimalchio in West Egg and The High-Bouncing Lover.

6. 
   1925

   Published

   Scribner's published The Great Gatsby on 10 April 1925. By October it had sold fewer than 20,000 copies.

7. 
   1942

   A second life

   In World War II, 155,000 free copies went to American soldiers overseas, and the book found a new audience.

Read more

• The Great GatsbyWikipedia

Sources: 1