One Man's Initiation—1917

He went to war to find himself. He found only the wreckage of everything he believed.

John Dos Passos's first novel is a raw, impressionistic account of a young American's disillusionment during World War I—a journey from naive idealism to weary horror, told in prose that owes as much to poetry as to journalism.

Martin Howe, a young American artist, volunteers for the ambulance service in France before the United States enters the war. He is eager, idealistic, certain that he is on the side of civilization against barbarism. He expects adventure, meaning, a chance to prove himself. What he finds is mud, boredom, bureaucratic stupidity, and the endless, senseless slaughter of young men.

He drives his ambulance through ruined villages. He carries the wounded and the dying. He listens to soldiers who have lost everything—limbs, minds, hope. He meets a French poet who recites verses in a dugout while shells explode overhead. He falls into a brief affair with a woman who is as lost as he is. Slowly, the idealism drains away. What remains is exhaustion, disgust, and the dawning realization that the war has no purpose except to continue itself.

This is Dos Passos at his most lyrical and angry: a novel about the death of innocence, the failure of words to capture horror, and the transformation of a young man who went to war believing in something and came back believing in nothing.

• Published in 1920, Dos Passos's debut novel, written while he was still in his early twenties

• A semi-autobiographical work based on Dos Passos's own experiences as an ambulance driver in France and Italy

• A stylistic precursor to the experimental techniques he would perfect in Manhattan Transfer and the U.S.A. trilogy

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A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the first step into adulthood is often the step that breaks you.

About the Author

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) was a prominent American novelist, artist, and political thinker, best known for his U.S.A. trilogy—The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money. Born in Chicago, he graduated from Harvard University in 1916. After graduation, he volunteered for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Service, serving in France and Italy during World War I. One Man's Initiation—1917 was his first novel, published in 1920, followed the next year by Three Soldiers, which established his reputation. The two novels together form a diptych exploring the disillusionment of the Lost Generation. His other major works include Manhattan Transfer (1925) and the U.S.A. trilogy. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1970.