One Man's Initiation-1917 "the greatest writer of our time" Jean-Paul Sartre John Dos Passos' first novel, a barely disguised autobiography of his withering experiences in France in 1917, was written from diaries he kept when a volunteer in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, the Red Cross and finally the American Army. A series of sharp, vivid, disconnected impressions written with beautiful, powerful simplicity, conveying the urgency and immediacy of a flowing stream of events. Powerful descriptions of suffering, broken bodies squalor and disintegration are juxtaposed with extraordinarily acute descriptions of beauty. It was published in 1920 by Allen & Unwin with Dos Passos contributing to publication costs. In the first six months it sold only 63 copies. Were it