Publication details of USA:

A trilogy collected in 1938, with the parts first published in 1930,1932 and 1936

Other literary works include:

Manhattan Transfer (1925), Midcentury (1961)

Born:

14th January 1896, Chicago, USA

Early years:

Born the illegitimate child of attorney John Randalph Dos Passos and Lucy Addison Sprigg, John Dos Passos spent much of his early life travelling with his mother before entering school. He probably owed his mastery of French to this period of his life

Schooling:

Attended Choate School before entering studying at Harvard from 1912-1916. It was at Harvard that he met and became friends with e.e.cummings

Career:

After leaving Harvard Dos Passos travelled to Spain before working as a volunteer ambulance driver in WW1 Italy. This was to provide experience and background for his first publication One Man's Initiation: 1917(1920) and his first successful novel Three Soldiers (1921). He then began the development of the distinctive collage like style that would characterise USA (1938) with the 1925 Manhattan Transfer. He also enjoyed success as a painter with his first major exhibition in New York in 1922. Dos Passos continued to write and paint for the majority of his life

Final years:

Perhaps the most commented on part of his later life was the shift in his political views from radical left to conservative right. Some have paralleled this with a decline in his creative ability. He died of a heart attack in 1970

Died:

28th September, 1970, Baltimore, USA