The scene is the end of the Gilded Age in New York City. Ellen Thatcher is a young girl who aspires to be an actress. Young Jimmy Herf returns after years abroad, and rejects business school, becoming a reporter. George Baldwin is a lawyer who wins a big case, but continues to struggle to grow his business, eventually entering politics. The novel weaves the lives of these characters together throughout the narrative.*Manhattan Transfer* also has a good number minor characters, some...

For this history, Dos Passos returns to the American colonial period and early nationhood, exploring the personalities who won the nation’s independence from England: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, and George Washington.Originally called “The World Turned Upside Down,” The Men Who Made the Nation covers the period from 1781 to Hamilton’s death in 1804. The work crystallizes the author’s fascination with the psychology of the colonial freedom fighter and pre...

John Dos Passos's second novel, Three Soldiers, was published in 1921 after many rejections from publishers and censorship squabbles. The novel, which was hailed as a masterpiece on its original publication, stands as one of the most grimly honest portraits of World War I. This anti-war novel focuses on three soldiers- Fuselli, an Italian American store clerk from San Francisco; Chrisfield, a farm boy from Indiana; and Andrews, a musically gifted Harvard graduate from New York-who...

‘Manhattan Transfer,’ considered by many to be John Dos Passos's greatest work, was first published in 1925. There are several separate stories that overlap one another. With these stories, the novel describes the development of urban life that took place in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age. It is believed to be one of the most influential books of Dos Passos. The novel presents Manhattan as a place that is quite merciless, but it teems with activity and energy. The author...

This gorgeous new paperback edition collects the three volumes of John Dos Passos’s acclaimed U.S.A. trilogy, a foundational work of 20th-century American literature named one of the best books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library, and a "linguistically adventurous national portrait for a precarious age—his, and ours" (The New Yorker).The U.S.A. trilogy, comprised of the novels The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big M...

John Roderigo Dos Passos (January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was a radical American novelist and artist active in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and he went on to Harvard College, graduating 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 Italy, later joining the U.S. Army...

With 1919, the second volume of his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos continues his "vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America" (Forum), lauded on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its groundbreaking style.Again, employing a host of experimental devices that would inspire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many textures, flavors, and background noises of ...

John Dos Passos’ ground breaking novel Manhattan Transfer is a landmark literary achievement. The book attacks the consumerism and social indifference of contemporary American urban life, portraying a Manhattan that is merciless yet teeming with energy, restlessness, and possibilities that too few will ultimately share. Manhattan Transfer was inspired in part by James Joyce's Ulysses and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. In it we meet a large ensemble cast of characters who are struggling, fai...

Considered by many to be John Dos Passos's greatest work, Manhattan Transfer is an "expressionistic picture of New York" (New York Times) in the 1920s that reveals the lives of wealthy power brokers and struggling immigrants alike.From Fourteenth Street to the Bowery, Delmonico's to the underbelly of the city waterfront, Dos Passos chronicles the lives of characters struggling to become a part of modernity before they are destroyed by it."...

The story in "Three Soldiers" is set during World War I and follows the experiences of the three main characters, John Andrews, Dan Fuselli, and Chris Chrisfield. The narrative explores their journeys, their reactions to the horrors of war, and their struggles to reconcile their personal beliefs with the harsh realities of combat.John Dos Passos was part of the Lost Generation of writers and is known for his innovative narrative techniques. "Three Soldiers" is an example of his early work ...

The company stood at attention, each man looking straight before him at the empty parade ground, where the cinder piles showed purple with evening. On the wind that smelt of barracks and disinfectant there was a faint greasiness of food cooking. At the other side of the wide field long lines of men shuffled slowly into the narrow wooden shanty that was the mess hall. Chins down, chests out, legs twitching and tired from the afternoon's drilling, the company stood at attention. Each man sta...

‘Manhattan Transfer,’ considered by many to be John Dos Passos's greatest work, was first published in 1925. There are several separate stories that overlap one another. With these stories, the novel describes the development of urban life that took place in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age. It is believed to be one of the most influential books of Dos Passos. The novel presents Manhattan as a place that is quite merciless, but it teems with activity and energy. The author...