Books: Growth of a Nation

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The Author. John (Roderigo) Dos Passos was born in Chicago (1896), has lived in Manhattan, Cambridge (Mass.). London, Brussels, Madrid, Paris. He graduated from Harvard cum laude in 1916. By conservatives considered a radi cal (all his writings have "social-revolutionary" leanings), he is looked at some what askance by orthodox Reds because his books are not primarily propaganda. Though many of his friends are Communists he is not a member of any party. Unlike such writers as Upton Sinclair, Dos Passos is more of an artist than an agitator. He was one of the artists, writers arrested in Boston in 1927 for protesting publicly against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.* Dos Passos has many friends, no intimates. He is the original of "Hugo Bamman" in Critic Edmund Wilson's novel, I Thought of Daisy (TIME, Oct. 7). Tall, anxious-browed, bald, nearsighted, monkey-gestured, he is excessively shy, extremely polite, chivalrous, stammers, cannot pronounce the letter R. Said never to use bad language himself (except when speaking of the late great Author Henry James), he admires those who do, writes about them. Unlike his books, he is brimming with youthful enthusiasm. Last September he married Miss Kate Smith of Chicago: they are now abroad. Other books: One Man's Initiation, Three Soldiers, Orient Express, Manhattan Transfer, Rosinante to the Road Again, A Pushcart at the Curb; The Garbage Man, Airways, Inc. (plays).

*0thers: Poet Edna Vincent Millay, Feminist Ruth Hale, Writer Michael Gold, Humorist Dorothy Parker, Playwright John Howard Lawson.

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