Novels, 1920-1925: One Man's Initiation: 1917, Three Soldiers, Manhattan Transfer

by John Dos Passos

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These novels record the emergence of John Dos Passos as a chronicler of the upheavals of the early 20th century. "In One Man's Initiation:" 1917 an idealistic young American serving as a volunteer ambulance driver in France learns of the fear, uncertainty, and camaraderie of war. "Three Soldiers" engages in a deeper exploration of the impact of World War I upon an increasingly fractured civilization. The novel depicts the experiences of three Americans as they fight in the final battles of show more the war and then confront a world in which peace offers little respite from the dehumanizing servility and regimentation of militarized life. "Manhattan Transfer" is a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in the first two decades of the 20th century that follows the changing fortunes of more than a dozen characters as they strive to make sense out of the chaos of modern urban existence. show less

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116+ Works 11,660 Members
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, he directed New Playwrights' Theatre in New York show more 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

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Novels, 1920-1925: One Man's Initiation: 1917, Three Soldiers, Manhattan Transfer
Original publication date
2003-09-11
Publisher's editor
Ludington, Townsend
Disambiguation notice
This is an omnibus unique to the Library of America; therefore, all CK facts apply to this publication only.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
DDC/MDS
813.52Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991900-1945
LCC
PS3507 .O743 .A6Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1900-1960
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Languages
English, French
Media
Paper
ISBNs
2
ASINs
1