Jones, James

Jones, James, 1921–77, American novelist, b. Robinson, Ill. Written in the tradition of naturalism, his novels often celebrate the endurance of man. From Here to Eternity (1951), his best-known work and the first of a trilogy, is a powerful story of army life in Hawaii immediately before the attack on Pearl Harbor; The Thin Red Line (1962) and Whistle (1978) complete the series. His other novels include Some Came Running (1957) and A Touch of Danger (1973). Viet Journal (1974) is an account of his trip to Vietnam.

Bibliography

See biography by F. MacShane (1985); study by J. R. Giles (1981).

---

Jones, James (1921–77) writer; born in Robinson, Ill. He served as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army (1939–44), at one point attending the University of Hawaii (1942); after the war he attended New York University (1945). His first novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), won over both readers and critics by its sheer narrative force—and was also made into a popular movie (1953)—but his subsequent work, with the exception of The Thin Red Line (1962), was not that well received in literary circles. He lived his later years in Paris, France, and Sagaponack, N.Y.

---

Jones, James 

Born Nov. 6, 1921, in Robinson, 111. American writer. Served in the US Army in World War II.

Jones became famous for his antimilitaristic novel From Here to Eternity (1951; Russian translation, From Here and Into Eternity, 1969). Jones’ novel Some Came Running (1957) tells about front-line soldiers who return after the war alienated from their bourgeois surroundings. In Jones’ style, which was influenced by the prose of E. Hemingway and the soldier poetry of R. Kipling, the naturalistic element predominates.

WORKS

The Pistol. New York, 1959.
Go to the Widow-maker. New York, 1967.
The Ice-cream Headache and Other Stories. New York, 1968.

REFERENCE

Orlova, R. “Malen’kie liudi na bol’shoi voine.” Voprosy literatury, 1960, no. 6.
Landor, M. “Konformizm i traditsiia.” Voprosy literatury, 1963, no. 3.
Nedelin, V. “’Vozliubivshie voinu’ i ikh zhertvy.” Inostrannaia literatura, 1961, no. 7.
Zverev, A. “Tropinka iz topi.” Inostrannaia literatura, 1968, no. 6.