John Dos Passos

John Dos Passos (1896-1970) was born in Chicago and graduated from Harvard University in 1916. That same year, he traveled to Europe intending to study architecture; however, he ultimately chose to witness World War I firsthand as a volunteer ambulance driver. His early novels depict his experiences from the front lines. Subsequently, he worked intermittently as a correspondent for American newspapers, and in his later years, he wrote several historical studies, during which his political views took a notable shift to the right. Thanks to his trilogy USA—which stands as his greatest literary achievement—Dos Passos is today considered, alongside Fitzgerald and Hemingway, one of the most significant representatives of the "Lost Generation" of American novelists, who captured with rare sensitivity and conviction the tragic disillusionment and disappointment of the interwar individual.