Zelda Fitzgerald was an American novelist, painter, playwright, and socialite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, to a wealthy Southern family, she became locally famous for her beauty and high spirits. In 1920, she married writer F. Scott Fitzgerald after the popular success of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise. The novel catapulted the young couple into the public eye, and she became known in the national press as the first American flapper. Due to their wild antics and incessant partying, she and her husband became regarded in the newspapers as the enfants terribles of the Jazz Age. Alleged infidelity and bitter recriminations soon undermined their marriage. After traveling abroad to Europe, Zelda's mental health deteriorated, and she had suicidal and homicidal tendencies which required psychiatric care. Her doctors diagnosed Zelda with schizophrenia, although later posthumous diagnoses posit bipolar disorder.
Fitzgerald in February 1920
F. Scott Fitzgerald photographed in 1917, a few months before meeting Zelda in Montgomery
While courting Zelda Sayre, F. Scott Fitzgerald continued to write Ginevra King and begged to resume their former relationship.
After marrying in April 1920, Zelda became homesick for the Deep South. She and Scott embarked that summer on a road-trip to visit her family in Montgomery, Alabama.
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for Continental Army Major General Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 200,603 at the 2020 census. It is now the third most populous city in the state, after Huntsville and Birmingham, and is the 128th most populous in the United States. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area's population in 2022 was 385,460; it is the fourth largest in the state and 142nd among United States metropolitan areas.
Image: Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery, South view 20160713 1
Image: Dexter Avenue Baptist
Image: First White House of the Confederacy, Montgomery, North view 20160713 1
Image: Commerce St, Downtown Montgomery 20160713 1