John Dos Passos, Number One

David C. Dougherty (Loyola University Maryland)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1943

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

While writing Adventures of a Young Man (1939) John Dos Passos decided to organize each of his District of Columbia novels around the life of a member of the Spotswood family. The idealistic, radical Glenn’s story anchored the first narrative; Number One (1943) follows Glenn’s older, cynical, alcoholic brother Tyler. Although the immediate sales and reviews were promising, Number One fell quickly out of favor with readers and critics, and is generally regarded among scholars as the weakest book in the D.C. trilogy. One reason for this is that it’s obviously based on the career of Huey P. Long (1893-1935), and it’s anything but nuanced. Sinclair Lewis had written It Can’t Happen Here (1935), a …

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1817 words

Citation: Dougherty, David C.. "Number One". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3112, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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