author
John Dos Passos
1896–1970
A leading voice of American modernism, this novelist turned city life, war, and politics into vivid, restless fiction. Best known for Manhattan Transfer and the U.S.A. trilogy, he helped reshape how the twentieth-century novel could sound and move.
7 Audiobooks
Three Soldiers
by John Dos Passos
Rosinante to the Road Again
by John Dos Passos
Facing the chair : Story of the Americanization of two foreignborn workmen
by John Dos Passos
Manhattan Transfer
by John Dos Passos
A Pushcart at the Curb
by John Dos Passos
One Man's Initiation—1917
by John Dos Passos
Streets of Night
by John Dos Passos
About the author
Born in Chicago on January 14, 1896, John Dos Passos became one of the major American writers of the generation shaped by World War I. After studying at Harvard, he served as an ambulance driver during the war, an experience that fed into his early fiction and helped establish his reputation as a sharp observer of modern life.
His best-known books include Manhattan Transfer and the U.S.A. trilogy—The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money. These novels are famous for their experimental style, blending narrative, news-like fragments, and sketches of public figures to create a broad picture of American society.
Dos Passos was also known for his strong political engagement and for the changes in his views over time. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 28, 1970, but his work remains important for its energy, formal invention, and sweeping portrait of the United States in the early twentieth century.