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EARLY LIFE Dos Passos' father was a wealthy Chicago Lawyer of Portuguese origin and could afford to give him the best education. In 1907 , he was sent to study at The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut , then went with a private Tutor on a six-month tour of France , England , Italy , Greece , and the Middle East to study the masters of classic Art , Architecture , and Literature . In 1913 he went to Harvard University . Following his graduation from university, in 1916 he traveled to Spain to study art and architecture. With World War I raging in Europe and America not yet participating, Dos Passos volunteered in July 1917 for the S.S.U. 60 of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, along with friends E. E. Cummings and Robert Hillyer . He worked as a Driver in Paris , France, and in north-central Italy. By the late summer of 1918 , he had completed a draft of his first Novel . At the same time, he had to report for duty with the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Camp Crane in Pennsylvania . At war's end, he was stationed in Paris, where the U.S. Army Overseas Education Commission allowed him to study anthropology at the Sorbonne . LITERARY CAREER Considered one of the '' it was followed by an antiwar story, '' Three Soldiers '', which brought him considerable recognition. His 1925 novel about life in New York City , titled '' Manhattan Transfer '', was a commercial success, and introduced experimental Stream-of-consciousness techniques into Dos Passos' method. A social revolutionary, Dos Passos came to see the United States as two nations, one rich and one poor. He wrote admiringly about the Wobblies and the injustice in the criminal convictions of Sacco And Vanzetti and joined with other notable personalities in the United States and Europe in a campaign to overturn their Death Sentences . In 1928 , Dos Passos spent several months in Russia studying their Socialist system. He returned to Spain with Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War , but his views on the Communist movement had already begun to change. Dos Passos broke with Hemingway and Herbert Matthews over their cavalier attitude towards the War and their willingness to submit their names to Stalinist Propaganda efforts. Over his long and successful Career , Dos Passos wrote forty-two novels, Poems , Essay s, and Play s, and created more than 400 pieces of art. His major work is the Trilogy '' U.S.A. '', comprising ''The 42nd Parallel'' ( 1930 ), ''1919'' ( 1932 ), and ''The Big Money'' ( 1936 ). Dos Passos used an experimental technique in these novels, incorporating Newspaper clippings, Autobiography , Biography and fictional Realism to paint a vast landscape of American Culture during the first Decade s of the Twentieth Century . Though each novel stands on its own, the trilogy is designed to be read as a whole. Dos Passos' Political and social reflections in the novel are deeply Pessimistic about the political and Economic direction of the United States, and few of the Character s manage to hold onto their ideals through the First World War. As Dos Passos grew older, he turned to the Right politically. In the mid- 1930s he wrote a series of scathing articles about communist political theory. At a time when socialism was gaining popularity in Europe as a response to Fascism , Dos Passos' writings resulted in a sharp decline in international sales of his books. Nevertheless, recognition for his significant contribution in the literary field would come thirty years later in Europe when, in 1967 , he was invited to Rome to accept the prestigious Felltrinelli Prize for international distinction in literature. Although Dos Passos Partisan s have long contended that his later work was ignored because of his changing politics, there is a Consensus among Critic s that the quality of his novels drastically declined following the Triumph reached with ''USA''. Between 1942 and 1945 , Dos Passos worked as a Journalist covering World War II . In 1947 , he was elected to the American Academy Of Arts And Letters , but tragedy struck in the form of an Automobile accident that killed his Wife of 18 years, Katharine Smith, and cost him the sight in one eye. He eventually remarried, to Elizabeth Holdridge ( 1909 - 1998 ), and he continued to write until his death in 1970 . He is interred in Yeocomico Churchyard Cemetery in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia , not far from where he had made his home. ARTISTIC CAREER Before becoming a leading novelist of his day, John Dos Passos sketched and painted. During the summer of 1922, he studied at Hamilton Easter Field 's art colony in Ogunquit, Maine . Many of his books published during the ensuing ten years used jackets and illustrations that Dos Passos created. Influenced by various movements, he merged elements of Impressionism , Expressionism , and Cubism to create his own unique style. And his work evolved to more than just a minor hobby with his first exhibition at New York's National Arts Club in 1922 and the following year at Gertrude Whitney 's Studio Club in New York City. While Dos Passos never gained recognition as a great artist, he continued to paint throughout his lifetime and his body of work was well respected. His art most often reflected his travels in Spain , Mexico , North Africa , plus the streets and cafés of the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris that he had frequented with good friends Fernand Leger , Ernest Hemingway , Blaise Cendrars , and others. Between 1925 and 1927, Dos Passos wrote plays as well as created posters and set designs for the New Playwrights Theatre in New York City. In his later years, his efforts turned to painting scenes around his residences in Maine and Virginia . In early 2001, an exhibition titled ''The Art of John Dos Passos'' opened at the Queens Borough Library in New York City after which it moved to several locations throughout the United States. LITERARY WORKS
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