John Dos Passos

He Paints in All His Spare Time

John Dos Passos became a figure for national discussion when his Three Soldiers appeared two years ago. Its bitter, naturalistic tone was criticized by many as ” disloyal.” By others it was hailed as” the Truth about the War.” Most critics agreed that it was a capable and occasionally brilliant piece of writing. Since then this young Harvard graduate has published a volume of poems, a volume of essays, painted a series of pictures which were exhibited in Manhattan and made two trips to Europe, from one of which he is at the moment making the return voyage. His novel of puzzled and groping youth, Streets of Night, will be published shortly.

I met Dos Passos at a tea in Greenwich Village. He is a large-headed, stumbling figure, who appears far younger than he is (27). He talks as he walks, in starts and stumbles. He is unbelievably shy. He will sit for hours at a table, either talking brilliantly or listening to talk not so brilliant. Two days after I met him, the manuscript of Three Soldiers was in my hands. Dos Passos left for Spain before the book was published. He is curiously detached from active interest in his books after they are written.

Dos Passos is of Portuguese descent through his father, who was a prominent New York corporation lawyer. Like William MeFee, he was born on the ocean. Some of his early youth was spent in England, where he went to school for a time. He attended Harvard but was not graduated. His War record is somewhat complicated. He enlisted in the Morgan-Harjes ambulance unit. His section was in the big attack around Verdun and Mort Homme in 1917. After the ambulance section broke up, he attempted to enlist in the Army but was rejected because of defective eyesight. He went to Italy, drove an ambulance up and down Mt. Grappa during the height of the Austrian drive. He returned to America in July, 1918, was immediately enlisted in the Army ambulance, received training and was sent back to France, but never had any active service with our own forces.

The two essential things about Dos Passos are his zest for color and his craving for motion. He paints in all his spare time. His books are filled with passages of glowing description. He feels everything, it seems, in terms of color—a sensualist, yes— Latin in spirit! J.F.