Dénia recalls John Dos Passos, the American writer who fell in love with the city on 1917
«How beautiful to die in Dénia young, under the embrace of the sun and lying next to the fiery blue of the sea». This made the city feel to the American writer John Dos Passos during the visit he made in the year 1917. And that feeling is what Dénia now collects to pay homage to a character who has been part of the history of our city and thus claim its importance.
This 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of Dos Passos's visit to Denia, a visit he made in two of the poems that form his book A pushcart at the curb (1922), his first and only volume of poetry. This is why the city of Denia, through the department of culture, «He does not want to miss the opportunity to commemorate the anniversary and to spread a page of the history of our city little known by the majority, at the same time that we pay homage to this figure of universal literature», As explained the mayor, Vicent Grimalt.
The commemoration of the centenary of the visit of Dos Passos to Denia begins next July, with the celebration, in the framework of the XXVIII Summer Courses of the Center Associated with the UNED of Denia, of the course From Cervantes to Chirbes. Denia and literature, With a session dedicated to John Dos Passos.
El thick Of the events will take place in the month of September. Between 15 and 30 days, you can visit the Municipal House of Culture, The exhibition Denia that inspired John Dos Passos. Images and publications, Organized by the Arxiu and the municipal library. The exhibition will include photographs of Denia from that time, author's books, with some first editions, and the edition of a catalog with the two poems of Dos Passos on Dénia and its translations of the original English into Spanish and the Valencian that will be given to the public.
The 22 of September, a great connoisseur of the figure of Dos Passos, as is the writer Manuel Vicent, will offer a lecture about the writer. It will be at 20: 00 hours at the Municipal House of Culture.
The acts of homage will end the 24 of September with the projection of the documentary Robles, duel in the sun (2015), by Sonia Tercero, within the framework of the Cinema Club Pessic program. In the documentary, the grandson of the writer, John Dos Passos Coggin, arrives in Spain to investigate the mysterious disappearance in November of 1936 that was the best friend of his grandfather, the translator and professor of Spanish Jose Robles Pazos.
Who was John Dos Passos?
John Dos Passos was a prominent American writer member of the Lost generation, As his friend Ernest Hemingway. Dos Passos was born in a wealthy family from Chicago with whom he traveled through Europe and Mexico.
At 1916 he graduated in Arts from Harvard University and expanded his studies in Spain - this time when, in January of 1917, he visited Dénia. He enlisted in the ambulance service during World War I, an experience that marked his life. After the war, he returned to Spain and lived in Paris.
At 1920 he published his first novel, The initiation of a man, Although his recognition came to him with Manhattan Transfer (1925) and the trilogy USA: 42 Parallel (1930) 1919 (1932) y The big money (1936). In addition to novels, he published essays, biographies and travel books, Rocinante returns to the road, On Spain, (1922). That same year he published A pushcart at the curb With poems of youth, among them the two dedicated to Denia.
His political commitment, close to socialism, led him to rebel in cases such as that of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, for whom he published Before the electric chair (1927). He collaborated with republican Spain but the disappearance of his friend and translator Jose Robles, was a crisis of values that brought him to more conservative positions.
No comments:
Post a Comment