How to Live on $36.000 a Year

Proof that 'the more things change, the more they stay the same', The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald pokes fun at how credit-reliant society is.

In the 1920s, Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda had been living at the Plaza Hotel when they found out they were broke. They couldn't pay for their hotel room and so moved into a rented house, so he could start writing again to pay the bill.

A year later, Fitzgerald once again found himself penniless.

At his wife's suggestion, he wrote 'How to Live on $36,000 a Year' - an autobiographical look at how he and his family had gotten through the last 12 months.

'How to Live on $36,000 a Year' is the ideal read for those interested in learning a bit more about one of the most famous American authors.



F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century and the author of the classics ‘Tender is the Night’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’, with the latter having been made into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

Skillfully capturing the prosperity of post-World War One America, his writing helped illustrate the 1920s Jazz Age that he and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald were at the centre of.