Showing results by author "John Dos Passos" in All Categories

This is the story of the war we won and the peace we lost, told with a clear historical perspective and a warm interest in the remarkable people who guided the United States through one of the most crucial periods. Foremost in the cast of characters is Woodrow Wilson, the shy, brilliant, revered, and misunderstood "schoolmaster", whose administration was a complex of apparent contradictions. 

Considered by many to be John Dos Passos' 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 14th 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.   

When John Dos Passos published this book in 1921, its explosive portrait of World War I shocked America. Instead of glorifying the Great War, he shows three men caught in a military machine that is as dangerous for them as the foreign terrain and the enemies they fight. Fuselli leaves San Francisco for the front lines in France, anxious to move up the military ladder of success. Chrisfield, a farm boy from Indiana, feels himself swept along as he marches in a sea of other soldiers.

"I will wade out till my thighs are steeped in burn- ing flowers I will take the sun in my mouth and leap into the ripe air Alive with closed eyes to dash against darkness in the sleeping curves of my body Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery with chasteness of sea-girls Will I complete the mystery of my flesh I will rise After a thousand years lipping flowers And set my teeth in the silver of the moon." -- E. Estlin Cummings in Crepuscule Eight Harvard Poets is a anthology of poetry by E. Estlin Cummings, S. Foster Damon, J. R. Dos Passos, Robert Hillyer, R. S. Mitchell, William A. Norris, ...

Dive into Three Soldiers, a groundbreaking 1920 novel by American writer and critic John Dos Passos. Esteemed as one of the most significant American war novels of World War I, this work remains a cornerstone of the realist war narrative. H.L. Mencken, a prominent literary critic of his time, heralded the book in the Smart Set, asserting that Until Three Soldiers is forgotten and fancy achieves its inevitable victory over fact, no war story can be written in the United States without challenging comparison with it. Mencken noted how Dos Passos unflinching realism reshaped American perceptions ...

In his captivating semi-autobiographical debut novel, John Dos Passos takes us on a gripping journey through the eyes of young Martin Howe, an ambulance driver on the tumultuous French front during World War I. Experience the chaos and camaraderie of war as Martin navigates the challenges of battle, loss, and personal growth. - Summary by Mark Leder

Come la Parigi di Baudelaire, la Londra di Eliot e la Berlino di Döblin, la New York di Dos Passos è un universo esiziale, realistico e fantastico al tempo stesso: la città - caleidoscopio di colori, suoni, odori - è un essere vivente fatto di nervi e cuore, un organismo che mette al mondo i propri figli, li cresce ma allo stesso tempo brama di divorarli. "Manhattan Transfer", romanzo lirico e visionario, è opera di linguaggio, di stile, di scrittura ma è anche una riflessione sulla condizione dell'uomo nella metropoli.

Making allusions to Don Quixote's wanderings on his trusty steed Rosinante, American novelist John Dos Passos creates a story of two travelers making their way by foot from Madrid to Toledo in post-World War I Spain. Along the way, they encounter simple, earthy folk on the trail and in taverns, thus providing a convenient backdrop for Dos Passos's observations on the tension between old agrarian ways and new industrial imperatives.

Springing from the author's first-hand experience as an ambulance driver and Red Cross worker during World War I, this autobiographical first novel is noteworthy for its vivid and colorful evocation of France at that time and for its passionate indictment of war. The author's disillusionment with war for a time turned him toward socialism and against capitalism.

In Three Soldiers, Dos Passos introduces listeners to a Harvard aesthete who joins the army out of idealism, and his two buddies. One by one, their illusions crumble under the tyranny, red tape, and boredom of the military. The soldiers' reactions range from bitterness to rage, and - for one - murder in this vivid portrayal of human spirit caught in the grip of war.

NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. University Theater relied on excellent distillations of the novels and first-class acting alongside high production values.