The Woman Who Inspired Nintendo’s Zelda Had An Incredible Life of Her Own

Zelda Fitzgerald was born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama. She was known as the outspoken party girl of the 1920’s. Though most popularly, she was known as the wife of the famous author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. But there is so much more to Zelda than meets the eye.

She was just as talented and intelligent as her husband and her influence extends much farther than just the Nintendo game.

Considered to be the ‘Original Flapper’

Zelda Fitzgerald was a free-spirited woman. She loved drinking, smoking, hanging out with boys; she loved going against the societal norms. Her high school graduation quote pretty much summed up her views on life, “Why should all life be work, when we can all borrow?

Let’s think only of today and not worry about tomorrow.”

She Was a Novel Writer

Many people know of Zelda as the wife of the famous writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, many do not know that she wrote and published a novel called “Save Me The Waltz” in 1932. It is a semi-autobiographical novel about her marriage to F. Scott.

She wrote a majority of the book during her treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital after having a nervous breakdown.

Her Husband Copied Her Work

Both Zelda and F. Scott accused one another of stealing each other’s works. For Zelda’s first and only book, “Save Me The Waltz,” F. Scott was upset that she took a lot of the events in their life that he was planning on using for his upcoming novel “Tender is the Night.” However, F.

Scott did steal from Zelda by copying entries out of her diary, word for word.

Her Award-Winning Short Story Was Lost

At the age of 18, Zelda published a short story called “The Iceberg” in the Sidney Lanier High School Literary Journal. It was a prize-winning piece for her, but many forgot it existed. However, a few years ago it resurfaced, and was republished in The New Yorker.