ABSTRACT
De Voto (1897–1955), the American critic and historian, was editor of Saturday Review from 1936 to 1938 (succeeding Henry Seidel Canby) and wrote the ‘Easy Chair’ column for Harper's Magazine from 1935 until his death. Author of a trilogy of histories covering the westward expansion across the frontier (including Across the Wide Missouri (1947)), he is best known for his studies of Mark Twain, such as Mark Twain's America, which stressed Twain's frontier background. In this review De Voto examines Dos Passos's development as a writer and questions the accuracy of his social history. He also notes Dos Passos's failure to invent memorable characters.
