On Friday, I attended the awards ceremony for the 2014 John Dos Passos Prize at Longwood University. It was the first time I had ever attended the ceremony and it paid off handsomely. I met the faculty organizer of the program, David Magill, as well as the sponsor of the $2,000 prize, Sharon Coulter. Above… Read more »
So three classic John Dos Passos titles, THE BEST TIMES, ORIENT EXPRESS, and NUMBER ONE, are now available for pre-order on Amazon as e-books! They release formally on May 12!
John Dos Passos’ THE BEST TIMES, his memoir, is now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle. I’m so happy! My mother and I have worked so hard to bring this title back from near-extinction. We chose the painting and Open Road Integrated Media designed the rest of the cover. I think it’s delightful. Order now!… Read more »
The audiophile that I am, I’ve often wondered what music might accompany the novels of John Dos Passos. What music mirrors and complements the themes of his books? What music creates similar worlds? I think this is especially significant when contemplating the USA trilogy and Manhattan Transfer. Rhythm, pacing are so important to those works…. Read more »
It’s been some time since I read any of my grandfather’s books. I’d like to start a reading marathon soon that will finally introduce me to titles like THE GREAT DAYS and TOUR OF DUTY in full. For this journey, I plan to take detailed notes on strong quotations from the text. I want to… Read more »
An interesting connection in today’s Wall Street Journal between John Dos Passos and the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano…Galeano died today. Galeano’s Memory of Fire is compared thematically and structurally to the works of Dos Passos.
I’ve just seen the draft cover art for three new John Dos Passos e-books, Adventures of a Young Man, The Grand Design, and The Great Days. It’s terrific. I will be very proud to share these products when they are released. Stay tuned!
Tonight’s episode of Mad Men on AMC, at 10PM EST, features a prominent reference to John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy. Recent sales numbers indicate that many readers only pick up The 42nd Parallel and fail to take in the full trilogy. This is a shame. Library of America has a handsome all-in-one book for sale…. Read more »
I have established a Twitter account for the Official John Dos Passos literary estate. John DP Coggin@DosPassoslegacy. This feed will feature all the latest developments in JDP legacy press. Just like this blog and my LinkedIn and Facebook pages. There will be a lot of cross-posting. In the future, I will probably establish a different… Read more »
Entertainment Weekly‘s Jeff Jensen adds to the growing talk about a John Dos Passos reference in new Mad Men: Meanwhile, privileged, fuzzy-headed Don meets a poor, beaten-down waitress, Diana (Elizabeth Reaser), whom he thinks he knows but can’t quite place, who taps his haunt and hunger. Recklessly chasing enlightenment threatens to further degrade them both…. Read more »
1) A new documentary, produced in Spain by Sonia Tercero Ramiro’s Time Zone Productions, discusses the Spanish Civil War’s impact on John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and José Robles. Robles, Duelo al Sol, will premiere in Spain on the 22nd of April in Malaga–as part of the Magala Spanish Film Festival. The film will likely… Read more »
John Dos Passos is to be mentioned in a forthcoming April 5 episode of the hit AMC show Mad Men. How appropriate–since my grandfather was so devoted to critiquing the rise of American PR man. The full-time PR man was a new creature in American capitalism when U.S.A was written. It had never really been… Read more »
Dr. Miguel Oliveira of Portugal is one of the premier John Dos Passos scholars working today. His labor has deeply enriched JDP scholarship. He is a fearless researcher. I’m delighted to share a summary of one his latest investigations. Oliveira has looked into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s file on my grandfather. It is chilling… Read more »
After a Herculean effort by director and producer Sonia Tercero Ramiro, the new documentary Robles, Duelo al Sol is close to its premiere in Spain and America. The documentary details the political and personal damage wrought by the murder of Spanish intellectual José Robles during the Spanish Civil War. Highlighted is the pain afflicting the… Read more »
Nearly a year ago I was on the banks of the Tagus river in Fuentidueña de Tajo with film director Sonia Tercero Ramiro, working on a new documentary on John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, José Robles, and the Spanish Civil War. I met Aurora Rodríguez Cabezas, the mayor of Fuentidueña. The documentary, by Time Zone… Read more »
On May 12, Open Road Media is publishing e-books of The Best Times, Orient Express, and Number One. These are all strong books but I’m especially pleased that The Best Times is being revitalized in this way. It is an accessible, poignant, funny memoir that can serve as a gateway for the casual reader into… Read more »
I’m happy to present another guest entry, our first from the country of Brazil. My grandfather loved Brazil and my mother and sister have visited the country and reported great experiences. My sister is fluent in Brazilian-Portuguese. I aspire to fluency, not just because of my Portuguese heritage, but because the country’s culture is so… Read more »
Last year, in the Library of America backlist, John Dos Passos’ U.S.A trilogy was ranked #33 in sales, between H.P. Lovecraft and Ulysses S Grant. I think that’s admirable given the size and expense of the LOA series. It’s a new year full of possibilities to advance the JDP legacy. Soon, Open Road Media will… Read more »
In terms of guest entries, we begin 2015 with an rising tide of scholarly riches. Philip Poulsen, one of the Danish scholars in attendance at the 2014 John Dos Passos Society Conference in Tennessee, comments here on the art and writing of John Dos Passos. I’m delighted to hear Poulsen’s observation that, on his recent… Read more »
I’m delighted to begin the new year with a fascinating perspective by Professor Keiko Misugi on the legacy of John Dos Passos in Japan. Prof. Misugi, like many JDP scholars, discovered him through Manhattan Transfer. One of my primary lessons of 2014, as Communications Director of the John Dos Passos Literary Estate, was realizing how… Read more »
