John Dos Passos

This gorgeous new paperback edition collects the three volumes of John Dos Passos's acclaimed U. S. A. trilogy, 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 Money, is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrayal of a nation that buzzes with history and life on every page. The 42nd Parallel unfolds in stories and "newsreels" consisting of front-page headlines and article fragments from the Chicago Tribune, revealing the lives and fortunes of five characters. Mac, Janey, Eleanor, Ward, and Charley are caught on the storm track of this parallel and blown New Yorkward. As their lives cross and double back again, the likes of Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie also make appearances.1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passos's characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, and a radical Jew, as well as the glimpses of the more famous Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier. The Big Money comes back to America after the war to find a nation on the upswing. Industrialism booms, the stock market surges, Lindbergh takes his solo flight, and Henry Ford makes automobiles. From New York to Hollywood, love affairs to business deals, it is a country taking the turns too fast, speeding toward the crash of 1929. 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 modern life with a cinematic touch and unparalleled nerve.

Before John Dos Passos enjoys fame as a chronicler and critic of American society, he wins recognition for command of aesthetics. Orient Express, a memoir of the author’s travels through Eastern Europe, the Near East, and the Middle East, focuses on sights, sounds, and smells rather than plot or character. Dos Passos applies his instincts as a painter to mountain ranges and grimy alleyways, finding beauty everywhere. His tour extends from Tiflis, Georgia, to Erivan, Armenia, and Marrakesh, Morocco; from Kasvin, Iran, to Baghdad, Iraq, and Damascus, Syria. He crosses the Syrian Desert, observes the aftermath of the Greek-Turkish War, climbs the Caucasus, explores Persia during the rise of Reza Kahn, and records the creation of Iraq by the British. His message is clear and relevant to contemporary travelers: holiness and happiness abounds in the East as much as the West. “With the name of Allah for all baggage,” Dos Passos writes, “you could travel from the Great Wall of China to the Niger and be fairly sure of food, and often of money, if only you were ready to touch your forehead in the dust five times a day and put away self and the glamorous West. And yet,” he adds, “the West is conquering.”

'My literary hero is John Dos Passos' - Adam Curtis (filmmaker) 'A modernist masterpiece, capturing ... the fragmented lives it sketches, in a dazzling kaleidoscope of New York City in the 1920s' Christopher Hudson, Evening Standard'Dos Passos has invented only one thing, an art of story-telling. But that is enough to create a universe' Jean-Paul Sartre'The best modern book about New York'D. H. LawrenceA modernist masterwork that has more in common with films than traditional novels, John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer includes an introduction by Jay McInerney in Penguin Modern Classics. A colourful, multi-faceted chronicle of New York in the early 1920s, Manhattan Transfer ranks with James Joyce's Ulysses as a powerful and often lyrical meditation on the modern city. Using experimental montage techniques borrowed from the cinema, vivid descriptions and bursts of overheard conversation, and the jumbled case histories of a picaresque cast of characters from dockside crapshooters to high-society flappers, Dos Passos constructs a brilliant impressionistic portrait of New York City as a great futuristic machine filled with motion, drama and human tragedy. John Dos Passos (1896-1970) was born in Chicago, the son of an eminent lawyer. After graduating from Harvard he served in the US Army Medical Corps during the First World War, and dabbled in journalism before embarking on life as a writer. In 1925 he published Manhattan Transfer, his first experimental novel in what was to become his peculiar style - a mixture of fact and fiction. His began a series of panoramic epics of American life with the USA trilogy, using the same technique and tracing, through interwoven biographies, the story of America from the early twentieth century to the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.

First published in 1925, "Manhattan Transfer" by American author John Dos Passos is an engrossing portrayal of urban life in New York City from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age. Critically acclaimed and widely considered to be his most important work, Dos Passos tells the story of the city as it grows and changes through the perspectives of many of its inhabitants. The city itself is a central character of the novel. It is exciting and glamorous, but also indifferent and often cruel to its citizens. The novel is told as a series of stories of interconnected groups, couples, and individuals as they navigate an urban landscape that is becoming more crowded and modern. The characters from many different walks of life are followed through both their ordinary daily life of marriage, children, and jobs and are also captured in the midst of their complicated dramas, tragedies, betrayals, successes, and defeats. Dos Passos was influenced by the detailed style and modern tone of James Joyce's "Ulysses" and T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" when writing "Manhattan Transfer" and he succeeds in capturing both a people and a place in the midst of a great transformation. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Three Soldiers is one of the major American war novels of the First World War, and remains a classic of the realist war novel genre. This powerful exploration of warfare's dehumanizing effects remains chillingly contemporary. This grimly realistic depiction of army life follows three young men as they contend with the regimentation, violence, and boredom of military service. Fuselli, a San Francisco store clerk, embraces conformity in the hopes of a promotion. Chrisfield, an Indiana farm boy, and Andrews, a gifted musician, are repelled by the army's mind-numbing routines and battlefield horrors. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

John Dos Passos's "Three Soldiers" is a powerful and enduring work of fiction exploring the experiences of soldiers during World War I. This meticulously prepared edition offers readers a crucial look into army life and the profound disillusionment that war can bring. Through its unflinching portrayal of military service, the novel provides a historically significant perspective on the First World War. Dos Passos masterfully captures the emotional and psychological toll exacted on those who fought, offering a poignant commentary on the nature of conflict. As a work of literary and historical fiction, "Three Soldiers" remains a compelling exploration of the soldier's war experience and the lasting impact of military conflict. This edition preserves the integrity of the original text, making it an essential addition to any collection of war literature. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"One Man's Initiation, 1917" by John Dos Passos offers a powerful glimpse into the realities of World War I. A notable work of American literature, this war story provides a compelling narrative reflecting the experiences of individuals caught in the conflict. Dos Passos, a celebrated author, captures the atmosphere of the era, exploring themes relevant to both historical and biographical contexts. This meticulously prepared edition presents a timeless account of war, suitable for anyone interested in military history and the human cost of conflict. A valuable addition to the genre of war stories, it sheds light on a pivotal period in history. Readers interested in World War One and its impact will find this book to be a poignant and insightful read. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.