James Jones: biography, features of creativity, interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the fiction of the Soviet period, there is no shortage of works dedicated to the Second World War. And this is quite natural, since many of their authors themselves experienced its horrors and could not help but share the feelings they experienced. However, novels, short stories and short stories telling about the exploits of people who fought against fascism and Japanese militarists were also created on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Due to ideological considerations, they were almost never published in our country and therefore unknown to a wide circle of Russian readers. Among the American writers whose works are worth getting acquainted with is Jones James Ramone.

Early years

The future writer was born on November 6, 1921 in the small town of Robinson, Illinois, to Ramon and Ada Jones (nee Blessing). The boy's childhood fell on the period of the Great Depression, the most difficult in the history of the United States, and was not particularly happy.

Barely younga person graduated from high school, the Second World War broke out. In 1939, the young man was drafted into the army and sent to serve in the 25th Infantry Division, 27th Regiment. Soon he, as part of the second battalion of company F, was sent to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where Jones James, along with his comrades, languished from idleness in the Scofield barracks and learned all the "charms" of American hazing and the arbitrariness of senior officers.

Participation in hostilities

On the morning of December 7, Japanese planes attacked ships anchored in Pearl Harbor and airfields on the island of Oahu, which housed the military unit in which James Jones served. He was shocked by the losses of the American army, which amounted to 2403 people killed and 1178 wounded. Then it was his turn to take part in the hostilities. In particular, the young corporal Jones, along with his company, landed on one of the islands of Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. There they had to repeatedly engage in battle with the Japanese. Only in November, the enemy, convinced of the futility of his attempts to regain control of the large airfield located at Cape Lunga, evacuated his soldiers on 20 destroyers.

Return to USA

During the famous Battle of Mount Austin, which lasted from mid-December 1942 to January 23, 1943 and was fought in the impenetrable jungle, James Jones was wounded in the ankle and awarded the Purple Heart medal. He was sent to the United States for treatment, and in July 1944 he was demobilized for he alth reasons.

After returning home, James Jones decided to continue his education and in 1945 entered the universityNew York State.

Literary debut

The first major work of the writer was the novel "From Here to Eternity", which was published in 1951. The debut was more than successful, and in 1952 Jones James received a prestigious award - the National Book Award. It must be said that, although his rivals were J. D. Salinger with his famous work "The Catcher in the Rye" and Herman Wouk with the novel "Rebellion on the Cane", already awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1951, the authoritative jury decided to recognize the work unknown writer.

In "From Here to Eternity," Jones described his very fresh impressions of his experience on the island of Oaha during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The success of the book was understandable, since thousands of Americans who received notice that their son, husband or brother was killed in Hawaii, from its pages were able to learn about how their loved ones spent the last days of their lives. In addition, many veterans were glad that their compatriots would finally learn the truth about what they had to endure, without embellishment.

Features of James Jones' prose

It must be said that in American literature such a thing as a military or army novel appeared only in 1895, after the publication of Stephen Crane's The Scarlet Badge of Valor. After a long break, new literary works dedicated to people forced to kill their own kind, following the duty, became the property of American readers during the First World War and after it. Most of them woreexplicit anti-militarist character, reflecting the views of their authors J. Dos Passos, W. Faulkner, E. Hemingway and others.

The first work of Jones was radically different from these works. In From Here to Eternity, he described the life of a "pineapple army" that indulges in every conceivable and unthinkable vice in Hawaii. Its main character, Private Robert Lee Pruitt, who was a successful boxer before joining the service, professes pacifism throughout the story. However, having learned about the attack on his regiment, even being wounded, the soldier seeks to return there to fight the enemy.

Further writing career

Jones's second novel, And They Ran Up, veiledly told readers about the life of the author after he returned to his native Robinson. In 1958, a film adaptation of this work was released in the United States, directed by Vincent Minnelli and starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. The film received 4 Oscar nominations and one Golden Globe nomination. However, the book itself was literally torn to pieces by critics who found a lot of spelling and punctuation errors in it, because they did not understand that in this way the author wanted to emphasize the provinciality of the town where the events take place.

In 1962, James Jones, whose books had already been repeatedly reprinted in large editions, presented readers with a new work called The Thin Red Line. It became in some way a continuation of the picture of the first novel of the author andled critics to call him a writer capable of replacing Faulkner and Hemingway.

Recent years

Unfortunately, the life of the writer was interrupted too soon, in 1972. During the work on the book "Just Call" he already knew that he was seriously ill. Not wanting his latest work to be left unfinished, he handed over the instructions to his friend Willie Morris, who completed the final chapters of the novel that completed the army trilogy, which also included From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line.

Private life

Returning to Robinson after being wounded, Jones began to drink frequently. His aunt decided to save his nephew and introduced him to social worker Loney Handy, who was married to the manager of a local oil refinery. She was supposed to help James cope with alcohol addiction, but they soon became lovers. The relationship between Lowney and Jones continued for several years. When in 1957 the writer, returning from New York, brought his wife Gloria with him to his hometown, the former lover made a scandal. As a result, James and his wife were forced to leave in a hurry. Jones and Gloria had a daughter, Kylie, born in 1960.

Interesting facts

• The novel "The Thin Red Line" was filmed twice. In 1964, a film with the same name was directed by Andrew Marton, and in 1998 by Terrence Malick. The latter invited Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and John Travolta to his picture. His picture received a prize at the Berlin Film Festival, but lost in 7 nominations forOscar, which was presented.
• The writer's daughter - Kylie - also proved herself in the literary field. In 1990, she published A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, a novel about her family's life.

Now you know that James Ramone Jones is the writer who most truthfully described the life of American soldiers who fought on the Pacific front during World War II. His novels, as well as the films based on them, are included in the ratings of the most significant literary and cinematic works of the 20th century created in the United States, so you should definitely check them out.