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: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose 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

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Recommended Reading

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 critique of Long’s methods if not his politics (dictator Buzz Windrip is a…

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1817 words

Citation: Dougherty, David C.. "Number One". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3112, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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