While writing
Adventures of a Young Man(1939) John Dos Passos decided to organize each of his
District of Columbianovels 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 Onefell 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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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 13 October 2024.]