Delphi Complete Works of John Dos Passos

by John Dos Passos, Delphi Classics (editor)

One of the major novelists of the post-World War I lost generation, John Dos Passos established a reputation as a social historian and radical critic of American life. His celebrated masterpiece, the U.S.A. trilogy, was ranked by the Modern Library as 23rd of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century. Written in experimental, non-linear form, the landmark trilogy blends elements of biography, song lyrics and news reports to portray a vibrant tapestry landscape of early twentieth-century American culture. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Dos Passos’ complete fictional works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Dos Passos’ life and works
* Concise introductions to the major texts
* All 15 novels, with individual contents tables
* Rare novels appearing for the first time in digital publishing, including the unfinished novel ‘Century’s Ebb’
* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* The plays and poetry — available in no other collection
* Includes a wide selection of Dos Passos’ non-fiction
* Features the seminal autobiography ‘The Best Times’ – discover Dos Passos’ literary life
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres



The U.S.A. Trilogy
The 42nd Parallel (1930)
Nineteen Nineteen (1932)
The Big Money (1936)

District of Columbia Trilogy
Adventures of a Young Man (1939)
Number One (1943)
The Grand Design (1949)

Other Novels
One Man’s Initiation — 1917 (1920)
Three Soldiers (1921)
Streets of Night (1923)
Manhattan Transfer (1925)
Chosen Country (1951)
Most Likely to Succeed (1954)
The Great Days (1958)
Midcentury (1961)
Century’s Ebb (1975)

The Plays
The Garbage Man (1926)
Airways, Inc. (1934)
Fortune Heights (1934)

The Poetry
Poems from ‘Eight Harvard Poets’ (1917)
A Pushcart at the Curb (1922)

The Non-Fiction
Rosinante to the Road Again (1922)
Facing the Chair (1927)
Orient Express (1927)
Why Write for the Theatre Anyway? (1934)
The Men Who Made the Nation (1957)
Mr. Wilson’s War (1962)
Brazil on the Move (1963)
The Portugal Story (1969)
Easter Island (1970)

The Autobiography
The Best Times (1966)

9583 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 27, 2023

About the author

John Dos Passos was a prominent American novelist, artist, and political thinker best known for his U.S.A. trilogy—The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money—a groundbreaking work of modernist fiction that employed experimental narrative techniques to depict the complexities of early 20th-century American life. Born in Chicago in 1896, he was educated at Harvard and served as an ambulance driver during World War I, experiences that deeply influenced his early literary themes. His first novel, One Man’s Initiation: 1917, and the antiwar Three Soldiers drew on his wartime observations and marked him as a major voice among the Lost Generation.
Dos Passos’s 1925 novel Manhattan Transfer brought him widespread recognition and introduced stylistic innovations that would define his later work. His U.S.A. trilogy fused fiction, biography, newsreel-style reportage, and autobiographical “Camera Eye” sections to explore the impact of capitalism, war, and political disillusionment on the American psyche. Once aligned with leftist politics, Dos Passos grew increasingly disillusioned with Communism, especially after the murder of his friend José Robles during the Spanish Civil War—a turning point that led to a break with Ernest Hemingway and a sharp turn toward conservatism.
Throughout his career, Dos Passos remained politically engaged, writing essays, journalism, and historical studies while also campaigning for right-leaning figures like Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon in the 1960s. He contributed to publications such as American Heritage, National Review, and The Freeman, and published over forty books including biographies and historical reflections. Despite political shifts, his commitment to liberty and skepticism of authoritarianism remained central themes.
Also a visual artist, Dos Passos created cover art and illustrations for many of his own books, exhibiting a style influenced by modernist European art. Though less acclaimed for his painting, he remained artistically active throughout his life. His multidisciplinary approach and innovations in narrative structure influenced numerous writers and filmmakers, from Jean-Paul Sartre to Norman Mailer and Adam Curtis.
Later recognized with the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for literature in 1967, Dos Passos’s legacy endures through his literary innovations and sharp commentary on American identity. He died in 1970, leaving behind a vast and diverse body of work that continues to shape the landscape of American fiction.