English: Photograph of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald wearing his World War I-era army uniform circa November 1917. After being romantically spurned by Chicago socialite Ginevra King due to his lack of financial prospects, a suicidal Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton University and announced that he wanted "to die." Wishing to fulfill a self-constructed narrative of a promising young writer whose life was cut short by his death in the Great War, Fitzgerald enlisted in the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He purchased a uniform tailored by Brooks Brothers and had stoic pictures of himself wearing the uniform sent to King and several publications such as Prince, a Princeton periodical. However, Fitzgerald did not obtain his desired opportunity to perish in the trenches after Ginevra King's rejection. Instead, while stationed in the American South, Fitzgerald wore his tailored Brooks Brothers uniform to a soirée in Montgomery, Alabama, where he encountered Zelda Sayre, a Southern belle. Zelda later would recall that—upon meeting the uniformed Fitzgerald—"he smelled like new goods." Although Fitzgerald was sexually attracted to Zelda, he continued writing Ginevra and asking in vain if there was any chance of resuming their former relationship. Upon learning that King had married polo player William "Bill" Mitchell, a heartbroken Fitzgerald reluctantly embarked upon a relationship with Zelda which led to their marriage.