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John Roderigo Dos Passos (January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist and artist. Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story

Contents

Early life

Dos Passos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos Jr. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The State of Illinois ( roughly ill-i-NOY is a state of the United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union. (1844-1917). The elder Dos Passos was a lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos and Mary Hays and the brother of Louis Hays Dos Passos. History See also History of Madeira Pre-Portuguese times Pliny mentions certain Purple Islands the position of which with reference to the The Portuguese people (os Portugueses literally the Portuguese) are the Ethnic group or Nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west He was an authority on trusts and a staunch supporter of the powerful industrial conglomerates his son would come to oppose in his fictional works of the 1920s and 30s. In 1910, he married Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison, from Petersburg. Petersburg is an Independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River. Although he provided for his son's schooling, he refused to acknowledge him until a year before his death.

The younger Dos Passos received a first-class education, enrolling at The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut in 1907 under the name John Roderigo Madison, then traveling with a private tutor on a six-month tour of France, England, Italy, Greece, and the Middle East to study the masters of classic art, architecture, and literature. Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter

In 1912 he attended Harvard University. Following his graduation in 1916 he traveled to Spain to study art and architecture. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. With World War I raging in Europe and America not yet participating, Dos Passos volunteered in July 1917 for the S. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All S. U. 60 of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, along with friends E. E. Cummings and Robert Hillyer. Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14 1894 &ndash September 3 1962 popularly known as E Robert Silliman Hillyer ( June 3, 1895 - December 24, 1961) was an American Poet. He worked as a driver in Paris and in north-central Italy. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

By the late summer of 1918, he had completed a draft of his first novel. At the same time, he had to report for duty with the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Camp Crane in Pennsylvania. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The Medical Corps of the US Army (MC is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch of the U The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern At war's end, he was stationed in Paris, where the U. S. Army Overseas Education Commission allowed him to study anthropology at the Sorbonne. The historic University of Paris (Université de Paris first appeared in the second half of the 13th century A character in U.S.A. goes through virtually the same military career and stays in Paris after the war. The USA Trilogy is the major work of American writer John Dos Passos, comprising the novels The 42nd Parallel (1930 1919, also known as Nineteen

Literary career

Considered one of the Lost Generation writers, Dos Passos' first novel was published in 1920. The ' Lost Generation' is a phrase made popular by American author Ernest Hemingway in his first published novel The Sun Also Rises. Titled One Man's Initiation: 1917 it was followed by an antiwar story, Three Soldiers, which brought him considerable recognition. Three Soldiers is a 1920 novel by the American writer and critic John Dos Passos. His 1925 novel about life in New York City, titled Manhattan Transfer, was a commercial success and introduced experimental stream-of-consciousness techniques into Dos Passos' method. The City of New York Manhattan Transfer is a Novel by John Dos Passos published in 1925

Early career

A social revolutionary, Dos Passos came to see the United States as two nations, one rich and one poor. He wrote admiringly about the Wobblies and the injustice in the criminal convictions of Sacco and Vanzetti and joined with other notable personalities in the United States and Europe in a failed campaign to overturn their death sentences. The Industrial Workers of the World ( IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati Ohio, USA Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (April 22 1891 – August 23 1927 and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11 1888 – August 23 1927 were two Italian-born American laborers Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. In 1928, Dos Passos spent several months in Russia studying their socialist system. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution He returned to Spain with Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War, but his views on the communist movement had already begun to change. Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21 1899 — July 2 1961 was an American novelist short-story writer, and Journalist. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Dos Passos broke with Hemingway and Herbert Matthews over their cavalier attitude towards the war and their willingness to submit their names to Stalinist propaganda efforts. Herbert Lionel Matthews ( January 10, 1900 – July 30, 1977) was a reporter and editorialist for the New York Times who Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people In later years, Hemingway would give Dos Passos the derogatory moniker of "the pilot fish" in his memoirs of 1920's Paris, A Moveable Feast, criticising Dos Passos for contaminating Hemingway's favourite places by bringing along his rich friends. A Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate

Over his long and successful career, Dos Passos wrote forty-two novels, as well as poems, essays, and plays, and created more than 400 pieces of art.

His major work is the U.S.A. trilogy comprising The 42nd Parallel (1930), Nineteen Nineteen or 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936). The USA Trilogy is the major work of American writer John Dos Passos, comprising the novels The 42nd Parallel (1930 1919, also known as Nineteen Dos Passos used experimental techniques in these novels, incorporating newspaper clippings, autobiography, biography and fictional realism to paint a vast landscape of American culture during the first decades of the twentieth century. Realism in the Visual arts and Literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in Everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation Though each novel stands on its own, the trilogy is designed to be read as a whole. Dos Passos' political and social reflections in the novel are deeply pessimistic about the political and economic direction of the United States, and few of the characters manage to hold onto their ideals through the First World War.

As Dos Passos grew older, he turned against authoritarian Communism. In the mid-1930s he wrote a series of scathing articles about communist political theory, and created an idealistic Communist in The Big Money gradually worn down and destroyed by groupthink in the party. Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing analyzing and evaluating ideas At a time when socialism was gaining popularity in Europe as a response to Fascism, Dos Passos' writings resulted in a sharp decline in international sales of his books. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology His politics, which had always underpinned his work, moved far to the right (he came to admire McCarthy in the early 1950s). Nevertheless, recognition for his significant contribution in the literary field would come thirty years later in Europe when, in 1967, he was invited to Rome to accept the prestigious Feltrinelli Prize for international distinction in literature. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Although Dos Passos' partisans have contended that his later work was ignored because of his changing politics, there is a consensus among critics that the quality of his novels drastically declined following U. S. A.

Between 1942 and 1945, Dos Passos worked as a journalist covering World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In 1947, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, but tragedy struck when an automobile accident killed his wife of 18 years, Katharine Smith, and cost him the sight in one eye. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster assist and sustain excellence" in American Literature, The couple had no children. He eventually remarried to Elizabeth Hamlyn Holdridge (1909-1998) in 1949, by whom he had an only daughter, Lucy Hamlin Dos Passos (b. 1950), and he continued to write until his death in Baltimore, Maryland in 1970. He is interred in Yeocomico Churchyard Cemetery in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia, not far from where he had made his home. Yeocomico Church is an historic church in Westmoreland County in the U Westmoreland County is a County located in the Northern Neck of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state in the United States.

Influence

Dos Passos' pioneering works of nonlinear fiction were a major influence in the field. In particular Alfred Döblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" and Jean-Paul Sartre's "The Roads To Freedom" trilogy show the influence of his methods. Alfred Döblin ( August 10, 1878 – June 26, 1957) was a German expressionist Novelist, best known for Berlin Alexanderplatz is a novel by Alfred Döblin, published in 1929 Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French The Roads to Freedom ( Les chemins de la liberté, in the original French) is a trilogy of novels by Jean-Paul Sartre. In an often cited 1936 essay, Sartre referred to Dos Passos as "the greatest writer of our time. " Perhaps the best-known work partaking of the cut-up technique found in U. S. A. is science fiction writer John Brunner's Hugo Award-winning 1968 "non-novel" Stand on Zanzibar, in which Brunner makes use of fictitious newspaper clippings, television announcements, and other "samples" taken from the news and entertainment media of the year 2010. John Kilian Houston Brunner ( September 24, 1934 &ndash August 26, 1995) was a prolific British author of Science fiction The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year Stand on Zanzibar is a dystopic New Wave Science fiction Novel written by John Brunner and first published in 1968 (ISBN Joe Haldeman's novel Mindbridge also uses the cut-up technique, as does his short story, "To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal". Joe William Haldeman is an American Science fiction author. Life and work Haldeman was born in 1943 in Oklahoma City Oklahoma

Artistic career

Before becoming a leading novelist of his day, John Dos Passos sketched and painted. During the summer of 1922, he studied at Hamilton Easter Field's art colony in Ogunquit, Maine. Ogunquit, pronounced "o-GUHN-kwit" is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Many of his books published during the ensuing ten years used jackets and illustrations that Dos Passos created. Influenced by various movements, he merged elements of Impressionism, Expressionism, and Cubism to create his own unique style. Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an Emotional effect it is a subjective art form Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European And his work evolved with his first exhibition at New York's National Arts Club in 1922 and the following year at Gertrude Whitney's Studio Club in New York City. The National Arts Club is a private club founded in 1898 to "stimulate foster and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts" Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney ( January 9 1875 &ndash April 18 1942) was an American sculptor art patron and collector and founder

While Dos Passos never gained recognition as a great artist, he continued to paint throughout his lifetime and his body of work was well respected. His art most often reflected his travels in Spain, Mexico, North Africa, plus the streets and cafés of the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris that he had frequented with good friends Fernand Leger, Ernest Hemingway, Blaise Cendrars, and others. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred on the intersection of the Boulevard du Montparnasse Joseph Fernand Henri Léger ( February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21 1899 — July 2 1961 was an American novelist short-story writer, and Journalist. Frédéric Louis Sauser ( September 1, 1887 &ndash January 21, 1961) better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet Between 1925 and 1927, Dos Passos wrote plays as well as created posters and set designs for the New Playwrights Theatre in New York City. In his later years, his efforts turned to painting scenes around his residences in Maine and Virginia. The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state

In early 2001, an exhibition titled The Art of John Dos Passos opened at the Queens Borough Library in New York City after which it moved to several locations throughout the United States.

Dos Passos Prize

The John Dos Passos Prize is a literary award given annually by the Department of English and Modern Languages at Longwood University. The John Dos Passos Prize is awarded annually to the best currently under-recognized American writer in the middle of their career Longwood University is a four-year public liberal-arts University located in Farmville Virginia. The prize seeks to recognize "American creative writers who have produced a substantial body of significant publication that displays characteristics of John Dos Passos's writing: an intense and original exploration of specifically American themes, an experimental approach to form, and an interest in a wide range of human experiences. "

Literary works

Published as

External links

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