On what exact date did F. Scott Fitzgerald die?

F. Scott Fitzgerald died on December 21, 1940.

Fitzgerald died at age 44 in the apartment of his companion, Sheilah Graham, in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The cause was a heart attack resulting from occlusive coronary arteriosclerosis, a serious condition affecting the arteries supplying the heart.

The night before his death, Fitzgerald and Graham attended the premiere of the film This Thing Called Love at the Pantages Theatre. On December 21, while he was annotating a copy of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, he suddenly collapsed. Efforts to revive him failed.

His death came during a difficult period in his career. Although The Great Gatsby would later become one of the most celebrated American novels, Fitzgerald believed that his reputation had faded. He had also been working on The Last Tycoon, an unfinished Hollywood novel that was published posthumously in 1941.

The date is sometimes confused with December 20 because that was the evening of his final public appearance. December 21, 1940, is the documented date of death.