Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

One of Chicago's most famous novelists, John Dos Passos was born here in 1896. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1916. Like several other well-known writers of his generation, he volunteered in World War I before the US entered the war. The next time the United States went to war, Dos Passos served as a war correspondent for Life Magazine in the Pacific and South America. The observation and writing skills he learned as a reporter came through in his fictional works; in fact, critics have sometimes even faulted him for being too objective.

Critics count Dos Passos among America's greatest writers, but many note a decline in the artistic quality of his work over time. While Sinclair Lewis hailed "Manhattan Transfer" as one of the most important novels ever written, works from later in Dos Passos's life have been greeted with less enthusiasm. His most contentious work is the trilogy "USA," a novel of protest with a distinct tone that is difficult to pin down.

Dos Passos was somewhat radical in his youth - among other political activities, he founded the publication "New Masses" in 1926. But he became more conservative as he grew older. Some critics have said that his political transformation was less a shift in ideology than a changing manifestation of his lifelong belief in rugged American individualism. He wrote several books about one of his personal heroes, Thomas Jefferson.

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