One Life is Not Enough

Collected Biographical Portraits by John Dos Passos

Edited by John Dos Passos Coggin and Fredrik Tydal

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This book collects the short-form biographical writings of American modernist author John Dos Passos (1896-1970). Primarily associated with the U.S.A. trilogy, Dos Passos’s prose-poem biographies of historical figures have long been popular with readers and a staple of college classrooms through their frequent appearance in anthologies. They include some of the author’s most celebrated and enduring pieces of writing, such as his portraits of Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Isadora Duncan, and most well-known of all, his elegy for the Unknown Soldier in “The Body of an American.” Broadening the compass of its selection, the book also recognizes Dos Passos’s continuing interest in biographical writing by including later, lesser-known profiles of notables such as James Dean, Malcolm X, and Robert Oppenheimer in addition to a previously uncollected portrait of his friend Ernest Hemingway. Given their self-contained nature, Dos Passos had long wanted to publish his short-form biographies as stand-alone pieces in a single volume, but the ambition went unfulfilled. This collection finally realizes that project, in a volume that is sure to interest scholars, students, and general readers alike.

About the Editors

John Dos Passos Coggin is an American writer from the Chesapeake Bay region. He wrote an authorized biography of Florida statesman Lawton Chiles, Walkin’ Lawton. His poetry has appeared in Pangyrus, Cathexis Northwest Press, and The Blue Mountain Review. His nonfiction has appeared in The Hill, The American Scholar, and The Baltimore Sun. Coggin, the maternal grandson of John Dos Passos, co-manages the John Dos Passos literary estate and serves on the advisory board of the John Dos Passos Society and the board of the John Dos Passos Institute.

Fredrik Tydal received his PhD in English from Uppsala University, Sweden and holds a lectureship at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has published on American literature in venues such as Modern Language Quarterly, Journal of Modern Literature, and American Literary History. He is the former President of the John Dos Passos Society.