John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
Author of Manhattan Transfer
About the Author
John Dos Passos, 1896 - 1970 John Passos was born January 14,1896 to John Randolph Dos Passos and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison. He attended Harvard University from 1912-1916. He was in the ambulance service units in France and Italy and in 1918, enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. From 1926-29, show more he directed New Playwrights' Theatre in New York City. In 1929, Passos married Katharine Smith and in 1947, they were in an automobile accident that killed his wife and left him blind in one eye. He married Elizabeth Holdridge in 1949 and a year later, Lucy Hamlin Dos Passos was born. Passos' many novels include "One Man's Initiation" (1917), "Three Soldiers" (1921), which has met with wide acclaim, "Streets of Night" (1923), "Facing the Chair" (1927), which defends the immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti, "Orient Express" (1927), "The Ground We Stand On" (1949), and "Prospects of a Golden Age" (1959). He received the Gold Medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1957, the Feltrinelli Prize for Fiction in 1967 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1947. On September 28, 1970, Passos died of heart failure in Baltimore, Maryland. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images, from Library of America website
Series
Works by John Dos Passos
Mr. Wilson's War: From the Assassination of McKinley to the Defeat of the League of Nations (1811) 135 copies
Viajes de entreguerras: Una visión del mundo entre la Primera Guerra Mundial y la Guerra Civil española (ODISEAS)… (2006) 8 copies
Novelas 6 copies
Manhattan transfer II 4 copies
42eme Parallele 4 copies
John Dos Passos' correspondence with Arthur K. McComb, or, "Learn to sing the Carmagnole" (1991) 3 copies
O Grande Capital 3 copies
Manhattan Transfer vol. I 2 copies
La grosse galette t. 1 2 copies
U.S.A. The Big Money - Illustrated 2 copies
La grosse galette t. 2 2 copies
The Body of an American 2 copies
Airways, inc., 2 copies
U. S. A., The Big Money 1 copy
Devetnajststo devetnajst 1 copy
Los Dias Mejores 1 copy
Un lugar en la tierra 1 copy
Hombre Jóven a la Aventura 1 copy
Drei Soldaten 1 copy
EL PARALELO 42 1 copy
Prospects of a Golden Age 1 copy
Die schönen Zeiten 1 copy
Tin Lizzie [from "USA"] 1 copy
Meester Veelson [from "USA"] 1 copy
La primera catástrofe 1 copy
U.S.A./42.Enlem 1 copy
U.S.A./1919 1 copy
Collected Works of John Dos Passos: (One Man's Initiation--1917, A Pushcart At The Curb, Rosinante To The Road… (2016) 1 copy
Il 42º parallelo 1 copy
Ciężkie pieniądze 1 copy
2005 1 copy
Veliki denar 1 copy
Le vie della liberta 1 copy
Novelas. Tomo II : Un Lugar en la Tierra . Podria Salir Bien. Tres Soldados. Primer Encuentro. Calles de Noche (1970) 1 copy
Art And Isadora 1 copy
Manhatten Transfer. Dos Passos’ depiction of the city of New York and Ellen Thatcher’s & Jimmy Herfs’… (2008) 1 copy
PRIMER ENCUENTRO 1 copy
CALLES DE LA NOCHE 1 copy
L'an Premier du Siecle 1 copy
Servizio speciale 1 copy
Il mondo fuori casa: romanzo 1 copy
Rocinante vuelve al camino 1 copy
Argus Bookshop Business Reply Card (Postmarked Jul? 1950) Autograph From John Dos Passos to Argus 1 copy
Prospects of a golden age 1 copy
DOS PASSOS: U.S.A 1 copy
el Paralelo 42 1 copy
Three Soldiers 1 copy
Associated Works
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Contributor — 410 copies
The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Contributor — 155 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 133 copies
Oogst der tijden : keur uit de werken van schrijvers en dichters aller volken en eeuwen (1940) — Contributor — 10 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Dos Passos, John Roderigo
- Birthdate
- 1896-01-14
- Date of death
- 1970-09-28
- Burial location
- Yeocomico Churchyard Cemetery, Cople Parish, Virginia, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Country (for map)
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Place of death
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Cause of death
- heart failure
- Places of residence
- Westmoreland, Virginia, USA
- Education
- Harvard University (BA|1916)
Choate School - Occupations
- novelist
poet
playwright
painter - Organizations
- American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps
United States Army Medical Corps - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (1947)
Antonio Feltrinelli Prize (1967)
Members
Discussions
April-June Theme Read: War and Regions in Conflict in Reading Globally (February 10)
AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--JUNE 2022--JOHN DOS PASSOS in 75 Books Challenge for 2022 (July 2022)
Reviews
John Dos Passos: U S A-The 42nd Parallel; 1919; The… by John Dos Passos
Passos' most famous USA trilogy is listed here as it begins with "42nd Parallel, then "1919" & concludes with "The Big Money" following his main character living out & influenced by other characters who bring both good and bad to him. Set in the early years of the 20th century interweaving in the background of historical events that readers may find it difficult to follow. Still, Passos' work remains a good read.
This was a major disappointment. The USA Trilogy has been in the back of my mind as one of those "I'll read that for sure one of these days" works for 15 years or so. 80 some odd years after its publication it is still mentioned as contender for the Great American Novel. Well, after reading this, the first volume, I don't join that chorus.
Dos Passos famously uses four different modes of writing in this work. The most conventional one, which is the main body of text, follows the youth and adulthood of various characters making their way through early 20th Century America. The characterization is decent, but fundamentally Dos Passos is not interested in these characters as people, but as types, as representatives of the USA. You can give him credit for scope, though if you're admiring of this aspect you should also give him demerits for a complete lack of interest in the experience of non-white Americans, which would seem to be a major flaw in a work aiming to embody the whole experience of USA. These chapters are okay, though nothing exceptional. Worthy of 3 stars.
Taking the book down to 2 stars for me are two experimental, modernist modes of writing, which I view as total failures. The greatest offenders are the "Camera Eye" sections, 27 of them in The 42nd Parallel, in which Dos Passos copies the style of James Joyce in attempting to create a portrait of the author. About a page or two each, bereft of any context or continuity, they are fairly tortuous, if blessedly brief.
The other mode is the Newsreel sections, which mash up and blend popular song lyrics with newspaper headlines and scraps of stories, as if someone with ADD was flipping through a paper while humming a song to himself. Experimental, precursor to TV, window into the mind of the time, blah blah blah.
The fourth mode is the one I enjoyed the most, brief sketches of famous biographical figures of the time which tend to the witty, irreverent and clever. I quite liked them, though are they necessary or even sensical to include in the novel? Not really.… (more)
Dos Passos famously uses four different modes of writing in this work. The most conventional one, which is the main body of text, follows the youth and adulthood of various characters making their way through early 20th Century America. The characterization is decent, but fundamentally Dos Passos is not interested in these characters as people, but as types, as representatives of the USA. You can give him credit for scope, though if you're admiring of this aspect you should also give him demerits for a complete lack of interest in the experience of non-white Americans, which would seem to be a major flaw in a work aiming to embody the whole experience of USA. These chapters are okay, though nothing exceptional. Worthy of 3 stars.
Taking the book down to 2 stars for me are two experimental, modernist modes of writing, which I view as total failures. The greatest offenders are the "Camera Eye" sections, 27 of them in The 42nd Parallel, in which Dos Passos copies the style of James Joyce in attempting to create a portrait of the author. About a page or two each, bereft of any context or continuity, they are fairly tortuous, if blessedly brief.
The other mode is the Newsreel sections, which mash up and blend popular song lyrics with newspaper headlines and scraps of stories, as if someone with ADD was flipping through a paper while humming a song to himself. Experimental, precursor to TV, window into the mind of the time, blah blah blah.
MOON'S PATENT IS FIZZLESorry, I'm not gaining anything by this.
insurgents win at Kansas polls Oak Park soulmates part 8000 to take autoride says girl begged for her husband
PIT SENTIMENT FAVORS UPTURN
Oh you be-eautiful doll
You great big beautiful doll
The fourth mode is the one I enjoyed the most, brief sketches of famous biographical figures of the time which tend to the witty, irreverent and clever. I quite liked them, though are they necessary or even sensical to include in the novel? Not really.… (more)
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