John Dos Passos was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 14, 1896. He graduated from Harvard University in 1916 and travelled to Spain to study architecture.  He worked as an ambulance driver in Spain during World War I and was stationed in Paris after the war. In 1929, he married Katherine Smith. His wife was killed in an automobile accident in 1947. In 1949, he married Elizabeth Hamlyn Holridge; the couple had one daughter, Lucy who was born in 1950.

John dos Passos is considered part of the Lost Generation of writers. He was a friend of Ernest Hemingway’s until they had a falling out over politics. His first novel, One Man’s Interpretation: 1917 was published in 1920; some of his better-known works are Three Soldiers, published in 1921 and Manhattan Transfer which was published in 1925.  In total, Dos Passos wrote 42 novels. He was also an artist who had several exhibitions of his work in New York City.

John Dos Passos died on September 28, 1970.

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