Gregory Rudd (American, B. 1952) "F. Scott Fitzgerald" Signed lower right. Original Oil painting on Cold Press Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 23c F. Scott Fitzgerald stamp issued September 27, 1996. Born on September 24, 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, where he penned amateur musical comedies. In 1917, the restless writer left Princeton without a degree. He enlisted in the army, where he wrote a draft of The Romantic Egoist -- the original manuscript of what was to become his first published novel. Revised extensively and renamed This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald's account of the newly-liberated generation of the Roaring Twenties was the first of its kind. Published in 1920, it garnered Fitzgerald instant fame. However, the gleeful excesses of his new lifestyle soon soured for the author, a sentiment reflected in Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922). In 1924, he joined the "lost" society of American expatriates living on the French Riviera that he later described in Tender Is the Night. Shortly after arriving in France, Fitzgerald completed his most celebrated novel: The Great Gatsby. Its haunting portrayal of the American Dream and its ultimate corruption made The Great Gatsby the quintessential American novel of its time and Fitzgerald's most cherished work. In 1940, the author died of a heart attack, leaving his most promising work, The Last Tycoon, unfinished. Fitzgerald was almost as renowned for his turbulent private life as for his timeless literary works. He brought to his short-stories and novels the intense romanticism and decadence that epitomized the lifestyle of his generation in the Roaring Twenties. Image Size: 14.5 x 12.5 in. Overall Size: 16.75 x 14.75 in. Unframed. (B15539)