Jones, James (author)

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'''James Jones''' (November 6, 1921 – May 9, 1977) is a midwestern [[United States|American]] author best known for his fictional portrayals based off of his actual accounts as a soldier in World War II. At the peak of his career in the 1950's, Jones was considered by peers to be one of the most major novelists of his generation, with his soulful depictions of the everyday man: the soldier, the father,
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'''James Jones''' (November 6, 1921 – May 9, 1977) was a midwestern [[United States|American]] author who wrote in the tradition of [[naturalism]]. His novels and short stories often celebrated human endurance. He is best known for the fictional portrayals of his real life accounts as a witness to the [[Pearl Harbor]] attacks and as a soldier in [[World War II]]. The first of these depictions, ''From Here to Eternity'' (1951), has been named one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century by the [[Modern Library]].
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Early in his career, in the 1950s, Jones was regarded as one of the major novelists of his generation. Today, his works are considered particularly valuable material for examining the experience of soldiering from a spiritual and humanistic perspective.  
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winning the National Book Award in 1952 for the novel "From Here to Eternity".
 
  
 
== Life ==
 
== Life ==
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Born in 1921, in the small community of Robinson, [[Illinois]], James Jones was the son of Ramon Jones and [[Ada Blessing]]. Jones was a perceptive youth, showing early signs of his talent as a writer. Says Barbara Moody, a friend of Jones' from his earlier years: "He was intensely interested in people. When you talked with him, you were the only person there. He made no judgments. He treated everyone the same, whether he was talking to a small child or anyone." Endowed with a sensitive and passionate nature, Jones stood apart from most other inhabitants of the small town of Robinson. According to Moody, he tended to live "on the edge" and was not understood well by others.
  
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Born in 1921 in Robinson, [[Illinois]].
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Jones enlisted in the [[Army]] in 1939, and served in the [[U.S. 25th Infantry Division]] before and during [[World War II]]. Assigned first to [[Hawaii]], he was an eyewitness to the attacks on [[Pearl Harbor]], the only major writer to have this distinction. He studied briefly at the University of Hawaii while awaiting his regiment's war assignment. Eventually, he would enter combat at [[Guadalcanal campaign|Guadalcanal]], for which he earned both a [[Bronze Star]] and a [[Purple Heart]]. Due to his wounds, he spent time recovering at a Memphis military hospital before receiving an honorable discharge from the army, returning home to Illinois in 1944, as an embittered and angry man.
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"He was intensely interested in people. When you talked with him you were the only person there. He made no judgements. He treated everyone the same, whether he was talking to a small child or anyone."
 
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Barbara Moody was a friend of James Jones from the old days. He ate meals at her home. He bought his first car from Barbara's auto-dealer husband. Now a librarian at Robinson, Barbara was a college professor in California for many years before returning home to this clean, progressive Illinois community of about 7,000. She is a defender of Jones in a town that is only now coming to terms with its most famous native son.
 
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"People didn't understand him well. He lived on the edge."
 
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Chicago Tribune, July 24, 1992: "A town forgives its least-favorite son," reads the headline. Jones was a drinker and brawler who even got kicked out of the Robinson Elks Club, an achievement thought to be impossible.
 
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He enlisted in the Army in 1939 and served in the [[US 25th Infantry Division]] before and during [[World War II]], first in Hawaii, then in combat on [[Guadalcanal campaign|Guadalcanal]], where he was wounded in action. 
 
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Born in Robinson, Illinois, Jones entered the U.S. Army and had the distinction of being the only individual who would become a major writer to witness the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. A member of the 27th U.S. Infantry Regiment (25th Division), Jones was wounded at Guadalcanal and returned to Robinson, where he started to write about his experiences.
 
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The Second World War began for James Jones during his breakfast on 7 December 1941. He was stationed at Schoffield Army Barracks, Hawaii and that morning he and the other troops in the mess hall thought the Air Corps was responsible for all the explosions echoing up the valley from Wheeler Airfield. As this blasting moved steadily toward Schoffield and them, the men moved gradually outside in confusion, at first, and then stunned disbelief. Just as Jones got to the doorway, he was immediately thrown back inside by the sight of a Japanese fighter plane roaring down the adjoining avenue, kicking up pavement a hundred yards in front. As the plane came abreast of Jones and the others huddled in the doorway, the rear-seat gunner gave them all a wave and a bit smile. Afterward, Jones remembered that it was at that moment that he became aware of the fact that he was witnessing history and wondered if he woujld be alive when this newly started war was over; then he thought that he may not be alive tomorrow. The previous month he had turned twenty years old.
 
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was wounded in World War II, went AWOL for a time from a Memphis military hospital, and returned to his Illinois hometown an embittered, angry man. He wrote, and for the first time in his life Jones had real money and fame.
 
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The acclaimed World War II author James Jones set down a trilogy examining the evolutionary process an individual undergoes to become a soldier when he wrote From Here To Eternity, The Thin Red Line, and Whistle. This process he experienced first-hand and influenced his writing for the rest of his life. In his book WWII he defined what this evolutionary process culminates in for a soldier:
 
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I think that when all the nationalistic or ideological and patriotic slogans are put aside, all the straining to convince a soldier that he is dying for something, it is the individual soldier's final full acceptance of the fact that his name is already written down in the rolls of the already dead. (54)
 
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The trilogy chronicles the complete soldiering experience of military life, the brutality of combat and the impact this may have on those that survive. It is this process that Jones came to call "the evolution of a soldier." The author firmly believes that it was an absolute miracle this country evolved such superb soldiers in such a short amount of time during World War II. Militarism was, and is, an anathema to the values this country is committed to and put us at a decided disadvantage when facing the powers of Germany, Japan and Italy. Jones writes of pre-war America in WWII.
 
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While most nations were spending young fortunes for wars, and indeed often engaging in them in one form or another, we were teaching our young that war was immoral, and evil, and that, in fact, it was so costly in both treasure and spirit that mankind simply could no longer afford it. All conditions devoutly to be wished, but hardly a realistic description of the 1930s. (30)
 
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In order to re-create this evolutionary process, Jones has us examine a fictionalized view of his personal wartime trilogy. In From Here To Eternity we see Army life in pre-war Hawaii; The Thin Red Line exposed us to intense jungle combat on Guadalcanal; and in Whistle the wounded come home to an Army hospital in the deep South. Each novel will present these experiences as they relate to Jones's evolution concept.  
 
  
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But his trilogy asks us to remember that the process was not as antisceptic as the history books present things. Real people, just like the ones we know and meet everyday, were crippled, maimed and died horribly, sometimes alone, sometimes for no other reason than they were told to "get up and move that way" and they did; they were sons, they were brothers, they were fathers, they were soldiers.  
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Back in his hometown, Jones became a drinker and a brawler, revealing a side of his personality that contrasted with his more compassionate qualities. It was during this time that Jones also became a writer, turning to his experiences in Hawaii and Guadalcanal for the substance of his work. He moved east in early 1945, to study at [[New York University]] (NYU). Here he met [[Maxwell Perkins]] of [[Scribner's]], to whom he submitted his novel, ''They Shall Inherit the Laughter,'' a story about soldiers returning home from [[World War II]]. The manuscript was rejected, but Perkins gave Jones a monetary advance on a story idea he had about his pre-World War II experience in Hawaii. Jones then returned to Illinois to work on this novel. Together with his mentor and lover, local intellectual and free spirit [[Lowney Handy]], Jones formed the [[Handy Writer's Colony]] in 1949, in Marshall, Illinois. The colony was conceived of as a [[utopian]] commune where emerging writers could focus on their projects.
  
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His wartime experiences inspired some of his most famous works. He witnessed the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], which led to his first published novel, ''[[From Here to Eternity (novel)|From Here to Eternity]]''. ''[[The Thin Red Line (1962 novel)|The Thin Red Line]]'' reflected his combat experiences on Guadalcanal. His last novel, ''[[Whistle (novel)|Whistle]]'', was based on his hospital stay in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], recovering from his wounds. Jones would not live long enough to see the completion of his last novel, however Jones did leave behind copious notes for Willie Morris to complete the final section of ''Whistle'' upon his death.  
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That year, Jones completed what would become his career's catalyst, the novel ''From Here to Eternity.'' The book was an international best seller and received high critical acclaim. Its success earned Jones both fame and money, as well as the [[National Book Award]], in 1952. Jones continued to write fiction ''(Some Came Running)'' while maintaining his residence in Robinson, where he built himself a dream-house bachelor home. During this time, he frequently traveled, especially to [[New York City]], where he made friends with literary figures such as [[James Baldwin]], [[Norman Mailer]], [[William Styron]], and [[Budd Schulberg]], among others.
  
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After shelving his unpublished first novel, "They Shall Inherit the Laughter," Jones completed the critically acclaimed international bestseller From Here to Eternity (1951). He assisted in the creation of the Handy Writers' Colony in Marshall, Illinois (which lasted from 1949 to 1964)
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In 1957, Jones married the enigmatic [[Gloria Mosalino]]. The couple soon moved to [[Paris]] as part of the second generation of American expatriate writers and artists, becoming central figures for the postwar European literary scene. Their lifestyle was that of the [[Beat generation]], spending most of their time in the St. Germain section of the [[Left Bank]].
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Jones assisted in the formation of the [[Handy Writers' Colony]] in [[Marshall, Illinois]], funded largely on the financial success of ''From Here To Eternity'', and organized by his then-lover, Lowney Handy (Ms. Handy was still married at the time). Originally conceived as a Utopian commune where budding artists could focus exclusively on their writing projects, the colony dissolved after only a few years, largely in part because of Handy's own erratic behavior and Jones' focus on his own novels.  The colony dissolved a few years after James Jones relocated to France following his marriage to Gloria Mosolino.  He helped bankroll a writers colony (for people who wanted to become writers) in Marshall, Illinois, some 15 miles north of Robinson. This colony (which existed from about 1949 to 1964) was a cherished dream of Jones's mentor, Lowney Handy, a Robinson intellectual and free spirit.
 
  
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Jones continued writing novels and short stories, and built a dream-house batchler pad (which cost $85,000 in fat 1950s dollars). He frequently travelled, especially to New York City, the literary mecca of the 1950s, where he quickly made friends with literary figures such as James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and Budd Schulberg, among others. Through circumstances as legendary as other events in his life, Jones met, married, and stayed married (in a profession notorious for marital discord) to a beautiful, fiery, and enigmatic woman. James and Gloria Jones moved to Paris, where they became part of the second generation of American Expatriots. Writers, artists, and other intellectuals from throughout the world visited the Joneses when in Paris.  
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The couple had two children in Paris, and Jones continued to write books. His next novel was 1962's ''The Thin Red Line,'' which served as the second part of his World War II trilogy following ''From Here to Eternity.'' Compelled by an attractive multi-book contract offer from the American publishing house [[Dell]], Jones left [[Scribner]]'s at the end of 1964, producing for his new publisher, ''Go to the Widow-maker'' (1967) and ''The Ice-cream Headache and Other Stories'' (1968). During this time Jones also served as a European talent scout for Dell and spent considerable time critiquing and encouraging young writers. Work on the final volume of his military trilogy was interrupted twice to produce ''The Merry Month of May'' (1971) and ''A Touch of Danger'' (1973).  
  
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New York: Styron, Jones, and Mailer were on the town, a night walking in Greenwich Village; as they paused for a stoplight, Styron threw his arms around both companions and made the legendary statement: "Here we are, the three best writers of our generation, and we're all together!"
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Following a visit to [[Vietnam]] in early 1973, Jones published an account of his trip called ''Viet Journal'' and began to think seriously of a return to the U.S. In 1974, he accepted a one-year teaching position at [[Florida International University]] in [[Miami]] and wrote the text for the illustrated history, ''WWII'' (1975). At the end of his FIU tenure, Jones moved to Sagaponack, [[Long Island]], and began again to work on the third in his World War II series, ''Whistle'' (1978). Struggling with worsening health, he worked through 1976 and early 1977 to complete the novel but died on May 9, 1977, from heart failure, before he could finish the project. Following his death, his friend [[Willie Morris]] added an outline of the unfinished final chapters of the novel, which was then published the following year.
  
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Paris: The Joneses hung out in the St-Germain section of the Left Bank, "full of all kinds of artistic ferment--painters, writers, poets, playwrights, many of whom are Americans," he wrote a friend in 1959. They lived a lifestyle of which any member of the Beat Generation would be envious. They bought paintings, "nothing expensive, but all of them things which we both like very much and which might one day be valuable," he wrote. Jim and Gloria were in love. They had two children. They travelled to Italy, Jamaica, and Haiti. They went scuba-diving and had adventures. Above all, Jones continued to write books, usually Big ones.  
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==World War II trilogy==
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Jones' ''magnum opus,'' the three novels which comprised his [[trilogy]] examining the evolutionary process of the soldier in [[World War II]], began in 1951, with the publication of his masterwork, ''From Here to Eternity''. The book depicts army life in pre-war [[Hawaii]], drawn from the author's firsthand accounts of his time stationed just before and after Japan's sneak attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] in 1941. It was later adapted into a blockbuster movie, which earned eight [[Academy Award]]s in 1953.
  
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before taking up residence in Paris as part of the Second Generation of American Expatriate writers and artists. Jones's other novels are Some Came Running (1957), The Pistol (1959), The Thin Red Line (1962), Go to the Widow-Maker (1967), The Merry Month of May (1971), A Touch of Danger (1973), and Whistle (1978). Jones published an acclaimed short-story collection, The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories (1968), a nonfictional history of World War II from the viewpoint of the soldier, World War II (1975), and a book of essays, Viet Journal (1975). Jones also published short fiction and articles throughout his adult life.  
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The second in the series was ''The Thin Red Line'' (1964), which describes the intense jungle combat that took place on [[Guadalcanal]]. This book, also, was later adapted into a major Hollywood film, first in 1964, and a second time in 1998, by director [[Terrence Malik]].
  
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His second published novel, ''[[Some Came Running]]'', had its roots in his first attempted novel, which he called ''They Shall Inherit the Laughter'', a thinly disguised autobiographical novel of his experiences in Robinson immediately after World War II. After several rejections for the work being too shrill and lacking perspective, Jones abandoned ''They Shall Inherit the Laughter'' and went to work writing ''From Here to Eternity''. ''From Here to Eternity'' won the [[National Book Award]] in 1952. It has been named one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century by the [[Modern Library]]. Conversely, while ''Some Came Running'' was made into a critically acclaimed film starring [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Dean Martin]] and [[Shirley MacLaine]] that was nominated for several Oscars, the book was savaged by the critics. Critics were especially harsh upon Jones' frequently misspelled words and punctuation errors throughout numerous passages of the book, not realizing that such elements were a conscious style choice by Jones to expound the provinciality of the novel's characters and setting. Jones apparently played around with this style with several short stories written at about the same time as ''Some Came Running'' (later incorporated into the collection ''The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories''), only to abandon it altogether for the blunt but more grammatically sound style most associate with Jones by the time he finished ''The Thin Red Line'' in 1962.   
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The final piece of Jones' trilogy, ''Whistle'' (1978), deals with a group of wounded soldiers coming home to an Army hospital in America's deep South. This, too, was based on of Jones' own experiences as a wounded soldier in a military hospital in [[Memphis]], [[Tennessee]].   
  
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The evolutionary process that Jones experienced first-hand as a young man forced to grow up fast as a soldier, was the prime inspiration for the bulk of Jones' works. In his book ''WWII,'' Jones gave the following summary of the soldier's culminating insight into his role as a war-fighter:
  
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<blockquote>I think that when all the nationalistic or ideological and patriotic slogans are put aside, all the straining to convince a soldier that he is dying for something, it is the individual soldier's final full acceptance of the fact that his name is already written down in the rolls of the already dead.</blockquote>
  
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The posthumous publication of ''Whistle'' in 1978 saw the completion of Jones' war trilogy (the first parts being ''From Here to Eternity'' and ''The Thin Red Line''), of which he wrote: "It will say just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the [[human condition]] of war and what it means to us, as against what we claim it means to us."
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Jones firmly believed that it was an absolute miracle that America was able to create a generation of victorious soldiers in such a short amount of time, especially since these same soldiers, unlike those of the the Axis nations, had grown up believing that war was the greatest wrong.
  
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Jones is the father of author [[Kaylie Jones]], best known for writing ''[[A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries]]'', a thinly veiled memoir of the Joneses living in Paris during the 1960s.  Ms. Jones' novel was made into a film starring [[Kris Kristofferson]], [[Barbara Hershey]] and [[Leelee Sobieski]] in 1998.  The release of this film, which coincided with the release of a new film version of ''The Thin Red Line'', directed by [[Terrence Malick]], sparked a revival in James Jones' life and his works.
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==Legacy==
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Though regarded in his time by some to be one of the generation's greatest voices, Jones' name for the most part has dropped out of the public's attention. This is due in part to the fact that he was greatly ignored by the writing academy at large during his career.  
  
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He is, however, remembered in certain literary circles as a genius of his time, and credited by many veterans today for having contributed much to the world's appreciation of the World War II generation. Furthermore, the Academy award-winning film adapted from his novel ''From Here to Eternity'' remains a well-known classic today. 
  
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There was also a revival of interest in Jones when his novel, ''The Thin Red Line'', was adapted into a major film directed by Terrence Malick, released in 1998. In that same year, ''A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries'' was also released as a major film. The movie was an adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, James and Gloria's first child, which depicted Kaylie's experiences as James' daughter.
  
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The James Jones Literary Society, founded in 1992, claims hundreds of members from the U.S. and [[Puerto Rico]]. The Society offers information and news of the author and his artistic contributions, as well as an $2,000 fellowship conferred annually to an unpublished writer.
  
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In his book James Jones, James R. Giles brings this fact to light within the first few pages; Giles writes,  
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==Works==
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*''From Here to Eternity'' (1951). Adapted into a film in 1953.
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*''Some Came Running''. Adapted into a film in 1958.
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*''The Pistol'' (1959).
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*''The Thin Red Line'' (1962).  Adapted into a film in both 1964 and 1998.
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*''Go to the Widow-Maker'' (1967).
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*''The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories'' (1968).
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*''The Merry Month of May'' (1971).
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*''A Touch of Danger'' (1973)
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*''Viet Journal'' (1975)
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*''WW II,'' Grosset & Dunlap, (1975).
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*''Whistle'' (1978). Completed by [[Willie Morris]].
  
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For almost thirty years, James Jones was the friend, and frequently the benefactor, of American writers at home and abroad. Despite his clear importance in the writing community, the academy still largely ignores him. PMLA biographies from 1951 to 1976 list only ten articles about his work in scholarly journals and essay collections, three of which are in publications outside the United States. It often seems that, when academicians remember Jones, it is as the spokesman for an anachronistic male supremacy or as a writer of flawed naturalistic prose. (5)
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==References==
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* Carter, Stephen R.''James Jones: An American Literary Orientalist Master''. University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN  978-0252023712
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Still, 34 years have passed since Some Came Running was published, and amends are being made. Two years ago an eclectic blend of community members and renowned scholars started The James Jones Society, which claims at least 145 members from 20 states and Puerto Rico. Jones's boyhood home is being restored as a tourist attraction, and a $2000 fellowship will be conferred annually to an unpublished writer.
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* Helterman, Jeffrey and Richard Layman. ''American Novelists Since World War II''. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1978. ISBN 9780810309142
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* Hendrick, George, Helen Howe, and Don Sackrider. ''James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001. ISBN 9780809323654 
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* Morris, Willie. ''James Jones: A Friendship''. Garden City: Doubleday, 1978. ISBN 9780385144322
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He wrote. From Here to Eternity topped the bestseller list in 1951. Other books followed, some great (like The Thin Red Line) and some not well received (such as Some Came Running), and
 
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Jones died in Long Island in 1977. He had become one of the most significant writers of his time.
 
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== Bibliography ==
 
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*''[[From Here to Eternity (novel)|From Here to Eternity]]'', (1951) (made into a [[From Here to Eternity|film]] in 1953)
 
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*''[[Some Came Running]]'', (1957) (made into a film in 1958)
 
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*''[[The Pistol]]'', (1959)
 
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*''[[The Thin Red Line (1962 novel)|The Thin Red Line]]'', (1962) (made into a film in both [[The Thin Red Line (1964 film)|1964]] and [[The Thin Red Line (1998 film)|1998]])
 
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*''[[Go to the Widow-Maker]]'', (1967)
 
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*''[[The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories]]'', (1968)
 
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*''[[The Merry Month of May]]'', (1971)
 
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*''[[A Touch of Danger]]'', (1973)
 
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*''WW II'', (1975)
 
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*''[[Whistle (novel)|Whistle]]'', (1978) (completed by [[Willie Morris]])
 
  
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==
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* [http://rking.vinu.edu/j.htm The James Jones Literary Society]
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All links retrieved March 18, 2018.
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* [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.JONES.con.html James Jones Papers]. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
 
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*[http://wiredforbooks.org/jamesjones/ 1975 Audio Interview with James Jones - RealAudio]
 
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*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7581199 James Jones on Find-A-Grave]
 
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*[http://www.theparisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4779 Read Jones's interview with The Paris Review]
 
  
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{{US-novelist-1920s-stub}}
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*[http://www.theparisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4779 Jones' interview with The Paris Review]. ''www.theparisreview.org''.
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*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7581199 James Jones at Find-A-Grave]. ''www.findagrave.com''.
  
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[[Category:history and biography]]
 
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[[Category:art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 
 
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[[Category:History]]
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[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]

Latest revision as of 20:44, 18 March 2018

James Jones (November 6, 1921 – May 9, 1977) was a midwestern American author who wrote in the tradition of naturalism. His novels and short stories often celebrated human endurance. He is best known for the fictional portrayals of his real life accounts as a witness to the Pearl Harbor attacks and as a soldier in World War II. The first of these depictions, From Here to Eternity (1951), has been named one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library.

Early in his career, in the 1950s, Jones was regarded as one of the major novelists of his generation. Today, his works are considered particularly valuable material for examining the experience of soldiering from a spiritual and humanistic perspective.

Life

Born in 1921, in the small community of Robinson, Illinois, James Jones was the son of Ramon Jones and Ada Blessing. Jones was a perceptive youth, showing early signs of his talent as a writer. Says Barbara Moody, a friend of Jones' from his earlier years: "He was intensely interested in people. When you talked with him, you were the only person there. He made no judgments. He treated everyone the same, whether he was talking to a small child or anyone." Endowed with a sensitive and passionate nature, Jones stood apart from most other inhabitants of the small town of Robinson. According to Moody, he tended to live "on the edge" and was not understood well by others.

Jones enlisted in the Army in 1939, and served in the U.S. 25th Infantry Division before and during World War II. Assigned first to Hawaii, he was an eyewitness to the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the only major writer to have this distinction. He studied briefly at the University of Hawaii while awaiting his regiment's war assignment. Eventually, he would enter combat at Guadalcanal, for which he earned both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Due to his wounds, he spent time recovering at a Memphis military hospital before receiving an honorable discharge from the army, returning home to Illinois in 1944, as an embittered and angry man.

Back in his hometown, Jones became a drinker and a brawler, revealing a side of his personality that contrasted with his more compassionate qualities. It was during this time that Jones also became a writer, turning to his experiences in Hawaii and Guadalcanal for the substance of his work. He moved east in early 1945, to study at New York University (NYU). Here he met Maxwell Perkins of Scribner's, to whom he submitted his novel, They Shall Inherit the Laughter, a story about soldiers returning home from World War II. The manuscript was rejected, but Perkins gave Jones a monetary advance on a story idea he had about his pre-World War II experience in Hawaii. Jones then returned to Illinois to work on this novel. Together with his mentor and lover, local intellectual and free spirit Lowney Handy, Jones formed the Handy Writer's Colony in 1949, in Marshall, Illinois. The colony was conceived of as a utopian commune where emerging writers could focus on their projects.

That year, Jones completed what would become his career's catalyst, the novel From Here to Eternity. The book was an international best seller and received high critical acclaim. Its success earned Jones both fame and money, as well as the National Book Award, in 1952. Jones continued to write fiction (Some Came Running) while maintaining his residence in Robinson, where he built himself a dream-house bachelor home. During this time, he frequently traveled, especially to New York City, where he made friends with literary figures such as James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and Budd Schulberg, among others.

In 1957, Jones married the enigmatic Gloria Mosalino. The couple soon moved to Paris as part of the second generation of American expatriate writers and artists, becoming central figures for the postwar European literary scene. Their lifestyle was that of the Beat generation, spending most of their time in the St. Germain section of the Left Bank.

The couple had two children in Paris, and Jones continued to write books. His next novel was 1962's The Thin Red Line, which served as the second part of his World War II trilogy following From Here to Eternity. Compelled by an attractive multi-book contract offer from the American publishing house Dell, Jones left Scribner's at the end of 1964, producing for his new publisher, Go to the Widow-maker (1967) and The Ice-cream Headache and Other Stories (1968). During this time Jones also served as a European talent scout for Dell and spent considerable time critiquing and encouraging young writers. Work on the final volume of his military trilogy was interrupted twice to produce The Merry Month of May (1971) and A Touch of Danger (1973).

Following a visit to Vietnam in early 1973, Jones published an account of his trip called Viet Journal and began to think seriously of a return to the U.S. In 1974, he accepted a one-year teaching position at Florida International University in Miami and wrote the text for the illustrated history, WWII (1975). At the end of his FIU tenure, Jones moved to Sagaponack, Long Island, and began again to work on the third in his World War II series, Whistle (1978). Struggling with worsening health, he worked through 1976 and early 1977 to complete the novel but died on May 9, 1977, from heart failure, before he could finish the project. Following his death, his friend Willie Morris added an outline of the unfinished final chapters of the novel, which was then published the following year.

World War II trilogy

Jones' magnum opus, the three novels which comprised his trilogy examining the evolutionary process of the soldier in World War II, began in 1951, with the publication of his masterwork, From Here to Eternity. The book depicts army life in pre-war Hawaii, drawn from the author's firsthand accounts of his time stationed just before and after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was later adapted into a blockbuster movie, which earned eight Academy Awards in 1953.

The second in the series was The Thin Red Line (1964), which describes the intense jungle combat that took place on Guadalcanal. This book, also, was later adapted into a major Hollywood film, first in 1964, and a second time in 1998, by director Terrence Malik.

The final piece of Jones' trilogy, Whistle (1978), deals with a group of wounded soldiers coming home to an Army hospital in America's deep South. This, too, was based on of Jones' own experiences as a wounded soldier in a military hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The evolutionary process that Jones experienced first-hand as a young man forced to grow up fast as a soldier, was the prime inspiration for the bulk of Jones' works. In his book WWII, Jones gave the following summary of the soldier's culminating insight into his role as a war-fighter:

I think that when all the nationalistic or ideological and patriotic slogans are put aside, all the straining to convince a soldier that he is dying for something, it is the individual soldier's final full acceptance of the fact that his name is already written down in the rolls of the already dead.

Jones firmly believed that it was an absolute miracle that America was able to create a generation of victorious soldiers in such a short amount of time, especially since these same soldiers, unlike those of the the Axis nations, had grown up believing that war was the greatest wrong.

Legacy

Though regarded in his time by some to be one of the generation's greatest voices, Jones' name for the most part has dropped out of the public's attention. This is due in part to the fact that he was greatly ignored by the writing academy at large during his career.

He is, however, remembered in certain literary circles as a genius of his time, and credited by many veterans today for having contributed much to the world's appreciation of the World War II generation. Furthermore, the Academy award-winning film adapted from his novel From Here to Eternity remains a well-known classic today.

There was also a revival of interest in Jones when his novel, The Thin Red Line, was adapted into a major film directed by Terrence Malick, released in 1998. In that same year, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries was also released as a major film. The movie was an adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, James and Gloria's first child, which depicted Kaylie's experiences as James' daughter.

The James Jones Literary Society, founded in 1992, claims hundreds of members from the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The Society offers information and news of the author and his artistic contributions, as well as an $2,000 fellowship conferred annually to an unpublished writer.

Works

  • From Here to Eternity (1951). Adapted into a film in 1953.
  • Some Came Running. Adapted into a film in 1958.
  • The Pistol (1959).
  • The Thin Red Line (1962). Adapted into a film in both 1964 and 1998.
  • Go to the Widow-Maker (1967).
  • The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories (1968).
  • The Merry Month of May (1971).
  • A Touch of Danger (1973)
  • Viet Journal (1975)
  • WW II, Grosset & Dunlap, (1975).
  • Whistle (1978). Completed by Willie Morris.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Carter, Stephen R.James Jones: An American Literary Orientalist Master. University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0252023712
  • Helterman, Jeffrey and Richard Layman. American Novelists Since World War II. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1978. ISBN 9780810309142
  • Hendrick, George, Helen Howe, and Don Sackrider. James Jones and the Handy Writers' Colony. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001. ISBN 9780809323654
  • Morris, Willie. James Jones: A Friendship. Garden City: Doubleday, 1978. ISBN 9780385144322

External links

All links retrieved March 18, 2018.

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