John Dos Passos

John Dos Passos

Born	John Roderigo Dos Passos January 14, 1896 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 28, 1970 (aged 74) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter, translator
Nationality	American
Literary movement	Modernism Lost Generation
Notable works	USA Trilogy
Notable awards	Antonio Feltrinelli Prize

John Roderigo Dos Passos (/dɒsˈpæsəs, -sɒs/; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist and artist active in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He was well-traveled, visiting Europe and the Middle East, where he learned about literature, art, and architecture. During World War I, he was a member of the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps in Paris and in Italy, later joining the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

In 1920 his first novel, One Man's Initiation: 1917, was published, and in 1925 his novel, Manhattan Transfer, became a commercial success. In 1928, he went to the Soviet Union to study socialism, and later became a leading participant in the 1935 First American Writers Congress sponsored by the communist-leaning League of American Writers. He was in Spain in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, when the murder of his friend José Robles soured his attitude toward communism, and led to severing his relationship with fellow writer Ernest Hemingway.