Dos Passos, John Roderigo (1896–1970)

US author. He made his reputation with the war novels One Man's Initiation (1919) and Three Soldiers (1921). His major work is the trilogy USA (1930–36). An epic, panoramic view of US life through three decades, and inspired by a communist and anarchist historical approach, it used such innovative structural devices as the ‘Newsreel’, a collage of documentary information, and the ‘Camera Eye’, the novelist's own stream-of-consciousness.

His other works include Manhattan Transfer 1925, an expressionist montage novel of the modern city.

Born in Chicago, Dos Passos was a member of the post-World War I ‘lost generation’, and his writing was shaped by his radical sympathies. He also wrote a second, less ambitious trilogy, District of Columbia (1939–49). Other works include One Man's Initiation – 1917 (1919) and Midcentury (1961).