The reputation of the American novelist John Roderigo Dos Passos (1896-1970) is based chiefly on his early work, especially the trilogy "U.S.A." John Dos Passos was born in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1896, the illegitimate son of a noted New York lawyer, John R...

For readers familiar with his work in the 1920s and 1930s, John Dos Passos's public image seemed clearly defined. His friends and colleagues were expatriate writers such as Ernest Hemingway, experimental dramatists such as John Howard/Lawson, and moderni...

For readers in the 1930s and 1940s the career of John Dos Passos had its puzzling aspects, but the image of the man seemed to possess a certain clarity. He was, according to the dust jackets, "Chicago-born," hence another of the mid-western realists, a r...

The U.S. and Europe headed toward a compromise solution Friday at the U.N. climate conference, breaking a deadlock over how ambitious the goal should be in negotiating future cutbacks in global warming gases, the German environment minister said."I think the situation is good ... and...

Remember Julianne Moore’s heartbreaking turn as a 50's housewife in The Hours? Her character’s style—embodying “the seamless appearances and the tony aspirations of midcentury Middle America”—is so hot right now. [NYT] In what is perhaps the most expensive Super Bowl ad ever made (above),...

The 1950’s were certainly not the best of times for a young artist to head to Paris. Europe was recovering from the devastation of the Second World War. From the standpoint of art, the vaunted School of Paris was, if not spent, then close to...

The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956-2006 examines one museum’s still evolving and complicated relationship with an idiom practically everyone else takes for granted. It’s an interesting instance of self-scrutiny, and much of the artwork on display is good or...