Dos Passos and Hemingway, a friendship forged in the fire of war
Pairing the two writers and their wars
The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War. By James McGrath Morris. Da Capo Press; 312 pages; $27.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY liked chasing after death. Given the chance to drive an ambulance in the first world war, he exulted: “Oh, Boy!!! I’m glad I’m in it.” Not everyone was so eager. John Dos Passos, a fellow writer, was also an ambulance driver in the Great War. But he called it “slavery”, a “tragic digression”. If the two men held opposing views on war, they were both also made by it. Conflict sculpted their relationship—and their writing.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "The winds of war"
From the April 22nd 2017 edition
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