The 1920s was one of those decades when America found itself in a state of flux, with mass entertainment and a new generation bringing radically different morals, along with new interpretations of gender roles and the class structure. Some saw it as a liberation from the stodgy Victorian past, while others saw it as a profound moral breakdown. Author and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald called it the “Jazz Age” in the novel that perfectly captured the mood of the nation of that time.

On this day, April 10, in 1925, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (named after his distant relation Francis Scott Key, who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner”) published his fourth and most famous novel, The Great Gatsby.

The themes of decadence and hedonism, most present in the descriptions of opulent parties that Jay Gatsby throws for his guests, were ripped from Fitzgerald’s own life. His wife, Zelda, always desired a luxurious lifestyle, and Fitzgerald, whose works failed to sell enough to afford it, frequently had to borrow from friends and his literary agent to make ends meet.