New Releases by John Dos Passos

The 42nd Parallel is the first novel in John Dos Passos’ acclaimed U.S.A. Trilogy, marking a revolutionary moment in American literature. Published in 1930, it captures the turbulent social, political, and economic landscape of the United States during the early 20th century, offering a vivid portrait of a nation in transformation. The novel follows a diverse cast of characters, including ambitious workers, struggling immigrants, and influential figures, whose lives intersect in ways that reveal the disparities and tensions of American society. Dos Passos employs his signature experimental techniques, blending narrative fiction with newsreel-style interludes, biographical sketches, and stream-of-consciousness passages, creating a multi-layered, immersive reading experience. Through its innovative structure and incisive social commentary, The 42nd Parallel critiques industrialization, political corruption, and the growing divide between the rich and the poor, while highlighting the aspirations and struggles of ordinary Americans. The novel balances personal stories with broader historical events, offering readers both intimate and panoramic perspectives on life in the United States during this era.

Discover the vibrant voices of a generation in "Eight Harvard Poets," an anthology showcasing the early works of E. Estlin Cummings, S. Foster Damon, J. R. Dos Passos, Robert Hillyer, R. S. Mitchell, William A. Norris, Dudley Poore and Cuthbert Wright. This carefully curated collection offers a glimpse into the formative years of these influential figures in American poetry, capturing the spirit and energy of college verse from Harvard University. Explore a diverse range of poetic styles and themes as these eight poets grapple with universal questions of love, life, and identity. This volume presents a unique perspective on the evolution of modern poetry, revealing the seeds of innovation and experimentation that would later blossom into groundbreaking literary careers. A must-have for enthusiasts of American poetry, "Eight Harvard Poets" provides a fascinating snapshot of a pivotal moment in literary history, immortalizing the enduring power of youthful expression. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

As the "Great War" inspired much great poetry, including that of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, so did it inspire compelling prose. John Dos Passos volunteered to drive an ambulance in France during the First World War. The brutality of his experiences turned him against not only war, but capitalism and inspired him to write One Man''s Initiation: 1917. (Goodreads)

"Three Soldiers" is a novel written in 1921 by the American writer and critic John Dos Passos. It is one of the key American war novels of the First World War, and remains a classic of the realist war novel.

The promiscuous wind wafts idly from the quays A smell of ships and curious woods and casks And a sweetness from the gorse on the flowerstand And brushes with his cool careless cheek the cheeks Of those on the street; mine, an old gnarled man''s, The powdered cheeks of the girl who with faded eyes Stands in the shadow; a sailor''s scarred brown cheeks, And a little child''s, who walks along whispering

In a novel that closely parallels author John Dos Passos''s own ideological struggles during the Spanish Civil War, protagonist Glenn Spotswood, an American, travels to Spain to fight on the Republican side. There, Spotswood joins the Communist Party to help establish a more just society, but his idealism quickly degrades under the stress of party orthodoxy and hypocrisy.

Despite sickness in the final years of his life, Dos Passos presses on for adventure. He and his wife journey to Easter Island, where they explore the history behind the famous statues—called maois. “When I was a small boy,” Dos Passos says, “some kind person took me to the British Museum. There I saw a statue, a huge, rough, dark-gray statue with [a] long, sad, dark-gray face. The statue stared back out of deep, sunken eyes. What was it trying to say? To this day I can remember the feeling it gave me of savage, brooding melancholy.”

This selective history of Portugal reflects the author’s fascination with his own Portuguese/Madeiran heritage. The work tracks the nation’s rise and fall as a world power, drawing from the author’s travels and archival research. “Dos Passos,” writes historian J. H. Plumb, “brings to his material a novelist’s acute eye for human character and a narrative skill that any historian might envy; and he has produced one of the most readable books on the subject that I know.”

Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today. We need to know what kind of firm ground other men, belonging to generations before us, have found to stand on. In spite of changing conditions of life they were not very different from us. This is a prime example of Dos Passos as an American novelist and reporter on American reality. In times of change and danger when there is fear under men''s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present. That is why, in times like ours, when old institutions are caving in and being replaced by new institutions not necessarily in accord with most men''s preconceived hopes, political thought has to look backwards as well as forwards. It is not a question of what we want; it is a question of what is. American history, the successes and failures of the men who went before us, is only alive in so far as some seeds are still stirring and growing in us today. Divided up into three major sections: The Use of the Past, Roger Williams and the Planting of the Commonwealth in America, and On the White Porch of the Republic; The Ground We Stand On traces the backgrounds and the rise of America''s early political structure, the variety of influences upon it, and the men who gave it a stable foundation. John Dos Passos (1896-1970), American novelist, was born in Chicago. During and after the Second World War, he became increasingly interested in the roots of American culture and produced a number of historical studies relating to the problems of American democracy. He wrote both fiction and nonfiction. Among his works are Manhattan Transfer, the trilogy U.S.A. and his autobiographical The Best Times.

John Roderigo Dos Passos (1896-1970) was an American novelist and artist. In 1912 he attended Harvard University. Following his graduation in 1916 he travelled to Spain to study art and architecture. With World War I raging in Europe and America not yet participating, Dos Passos volunteered in July 1917 for the S. S.U. 60 of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps. He worked as a driver in Paris and in north-central Italy. By the late summer of 1918, he had completed a draft of his first novel. Considered one of the Lost Generation writers, Dos Passosa first novel, One Manas Initiation- 1917, was published in 1920. It was followed by an antiwar story, Three Soldiers (1921). His major work is the U. S.A. trilogy comprising The 42nd Parallel (1930), Nineteen Nineteen (1932), and The Big Money (1936). Between 1942 and 1945, Dos Passos worked as a journalist covering World War II. His other works include: A Pushcart at the Curb (1922), Streets of Night (1923) and Journeys Between Wars (1938).

During the years of his emergence as a major American novelist, John Dos Passos traveled widely in Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, and the United States, witnessing many of the tumultuous political, social, and cultural events of the early twentieth century and recording his changing response to them. This Library of America volume collects the vibrant and insightful travel books and essays he wrote at the same time he was publishing his fictional masterpieces Three Soldiers, Manhattan Transfer, and U.S.A. Rosinante to the Road Again (1922) is a vivid collection of essays on Spanish life, literature, and art that demonstrates Dos Passos''s enduring fascination with a country he would repeatedly visit and write about. Orient Express (1927) records his 1921-1922 journey through the Middle East, and contains provocative and haunting descriptions of the effects of the Greek-Turkish War; the Caucasus in the aftermath of Soviet conquest; Persia during the rise of Reza Khan; the creation of Iraq by the British; and a winter trip by camel caravan across the desert from Baghdad to Damascus. In All Countries (1934) collects pieces on Russia in the late 1920s, Mexico in the aftermath of Zapata, the troubled Spanish Republic, and strikes and protests in the United States, while articles that appeared in Journeys Between Wars (1938) examine France under the Popular Front and the Spanish Civil War. Also included are A Pushcart at the Curb (1922), a cycle of poems inspired by his travels; nine political and literary essays written between 1916 and 1941, including his denunciation of the execution of his friend Jos Robles by Spanish Communists; and a selection of letters and diary entries from 1916 to 1920 that record his wartime service as an ambulance driver in France and Italy. Plus 8 full-color plates of watercolors by Dos Passos. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation''s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America''s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

With his U.S.A. trilogy, comprising THE 42nd PARALLEL, 1919, and THE BIG MONEY, John Dos Passos is said by many to have written the great American novel. While Fitzgerald and Hemingway were cultivating what Edmund Wilson once called their own little corners, John Dos Passos was taking on the world. Counted as one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library and by some of the finest writers working today, U.S.A. is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation, buzzing with history and life on every page. The trilogy opens with THE 42nd PARALLEL, where we find a young country at the dawn of the twentieth century. Slowly, in stories artfully spliced together, the lives and fortunes of five characters unfold. Mac, Janey, Eleanor, Ward, and Charley are caught on the storm track of this parallel and blown New Yorkward. As their lives cross and double back again, the likes of Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie make cameo appearances.

"His final novel in a series of thirteen “contemporary chronicles,” Century’s Ebb, is published posthumously. As in the U.S.A. trilogy, Dos Passos contrasts the main action with biographical sketches of select figures from history, such as John Foster Dulles and Robert H. Goddard. Century’s Ebb is unrevised and incomplete, but its themes are evident. Against the slate of recent American history, Dos Passos celebrates the virtues of the farmer and finds connections between pastoral wisdom and democratic values in Walt Whitman’s writings. After a lifetime as witness to tragedy, the author ends his career in fiction with a chapter on his optimism for the U.S. Apollo program."-- www.johndospassos.com/writings/centurys-ebb-the-thirteenth-chronicle/

THE BIG MONEY completes John Dos Passos''s three-volume "fable of America''s materialistic success and moral decline" (American Heritage) and marks the end of "one of the most ambitious projects that an American novelist has ever undertaken" (Time). Here we come back to America after the war and find a nation on the upswing. Industrialism booms. The stock market surges. Lindbergh takes his solo flight. Henry Ford makes automobiles. From New York to Hollywood, love affairs to business deals, it is a country taking the turns too fast, speeding toward the crash of 1929. Ultimately, whether the novels are read together or separately, they paint a sweeping portrait of collective America and showcase the brilliance and bravery of one of its most enduring and admired writers.

During the war, Dos Passos visits and studies conditions in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, the Marianas, the Caroline Islands, the Philippines, New Caledonia, New Guinea, and Australia. Of great concern to the author as he explores postwar Europe is the responsible brokering of the peace.