'The work of a generation'

 

“If there is a special ‘Hell’ forwriters it would probably be the forced contemplation of their own works.” – John Dos Passos

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1896,Dos Passos’ mark on literature came primarily through writing about issues of socialjustice. 

 

Well-educated (private schools anda university degree from Harvard) and well-traveled, he visited Europe and theMiddle East to study literature, art and architecture, experiences he balancedagainst time serving as an ambulance driver during World War I.  Both experiences, he said, shaped his viewsand his writings about “fairness and justice.” 

 

Both a gifted writer and artist (hedid covers for Life magazine, for example) he is best knownfor his USA Trilogy, which consists of The 42nd Parallel, 1919,and The Big Money – a trio of novels that has been rated inthe top 25 of The 100 Best English Language novels of the 20th Century.  He became part of the so-called “LostGeneration” of American writers living in Paris in the 1920s, his friendshipswith Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald also having aninfluence on his writings.

 

Near the end of his long life – hedied at age 84 in 1970 – Dos Passos reflected on his life’s work and said: “Thecreation of a world view is the work of a generation rather than of anindividual, but we, each of us, for better or worse, add our brick to theedifice.”