Dos Passos and Orwell

Last weekend, at the American Literature Association in Chicago, I presented on John Dos Passos and George Orwell–how their lives converged and their legacies diverged. They met once during the Spanish Civil War.

“We didn’t talk very long,” said Dos Passos in his book The Theme is Freedom, “but I can still remember the sense of assuagement, of relief from strain I felt at last to be talking to an honest man.”

My paper on this topic will appear in a literary journal later this year.