The 42nd Parallel

The first volume of the greatest American novel of the twentieth century.

John Dos Passos's The 42nd Parallel is the opening movement of his monumental U.S.A. trilogy—a sweeping, symphonic portrait of America in the decades before the First World War. Published in 1930, it introduced a revolutionary narrative technique that blended fiction, biography, journalism, and poetry into a new kind of novel: the novel as collective history.

The novel follows a dozen characters as they drift across the American landscape—from Chicago to New York, from San Francisco to Mexico. There is Mac, a young printer who becomes a radical labor organizer. There is Janey, a stenographer who dreams of a better life. There is J. Ward Moorehouse, a smooth-talking public relations man who rises through manipulation and charm. There is Eleanor Stoddard, a decorator who will do anything to climb the social ladder. There is Ben Compton, a lawyer who defends the poor and is crushed by the system. Their stories intersect and diverge, their lives shaped by forces they cannot control: economic depression, labor unrest, the rise of industrial capitalism, and the distant rumble of a war that will soon engulf them all.

Interspersed with their stories are the "Newsreels"—fragments of newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and popular songs that capture the noise of the era. There are the "Camera Eye" sections—impressionistic, autobiographical passages written in a lyrical prose poetry. And there are the biographical sketches of American icons: Eugene Debs, Thomas Edison, William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, Thorstein Veblen, and others who shaped the nation.

This is Dos Passos at his most ambitious and innovative: a novel that refuses to focus on a single hero, insisting instead that the true hero is the nation itself—its dreams, its failures, its contradictions, and its people.

• First published in 1930, the first volume of the U.S.A. trilogy, followed by *1919* (1932) and The Big Money (1936)

• Named by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century

• A landmark of modernist fiction, employing techniques of montage, collage, and multiple perspectives

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

• Ebook: DRM-free EPUB compatible with Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, and all major e-readers.

• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the story of America cannot be told by one voice, but only by a chorus of the lost, the forgotten, and the damned.

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 serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, he became one of the leading voices of the Lost Generation. The 42nd Parallel was his fifth novel, following One Man's Initiation—1917 (1920), Three Soldiers (1921), Streets of Night (1923), and Manhattan Transfer (1925). The U.S.A. trilogy took him nearly a decade to complete and is widely considered his masterpiece. His later work grew increasingly conservative, especially after the Spanish Civil War. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1970.