The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War

Product Description

After meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense twenty-year friendship and write some of America's greatest novels, giving voice to a "lost generation" shaken by war.

Eager to find his way in life and words, John Dos Passos first witnessed the horror of trench warfare in France as a volunteer ambulance driver retrieving the dead and seriously wounded from the front line. Later in the war, he briefly met another young writer, Ernest Hemingway, who was just arriving for his service in the ambulance corps. When the war was over, both men knew they had to write about it; they had to give voice to what they felt about war and life.

Their friendship and collaboration developed through the peace of the 1920s and 1930s, as Hemingway's novels soared to success while Dos Passos penned the greatest antiwar novel of his generation, Three Soldiers. In war, Hemingway found adventure, women, and a cause. Dos Passos saw only oppression and futility. Their different visions eventually turned their private friendship into a bitter public fight, fueled by money, jealousy, and lust.

Rich in evocative detail--from Paris cafes to the Austrian Alps, from the streets of Pamplona to the waters of Key West--The Ambulance Drivers is a biography of a turbulent friendship between two of the century's greatest writers, and an illustration of how war both inspires and destroys, unites and divides.

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Top Reviews

The Sad Generation
by lidz (4 out of 5 stars)
July 9, 2017

This is a highly informative book about not necessarily "The Lost Generation" but the "Sad Generation." Perhaps it was inevitable coming out of the tremendous losses of WWI. The book is depressing while being highly informative about lives that have been studied ad infinitum. Who knew that there was more to be learned about Hemingway. We know less of Dos Passos to begin with, so the information about him was valuable, stimulating and made one want to read and know more about him.

From an early age a lot of us on the planet now think that we "know" Hemingway and Fitzgerald. They are almost always mentioned in the same breath --like Woodward and Bernstein-- as icons, paragons and heroes of their age, era and time. Both were troubled men. They may not have been lost, but they were sad. As Fitzgerald wrote, "All The Sad Young Men." He knew his territory and whereof he spoke and wrote.

There is a lot of further research contained in this book even after the last nominal chapter, Chapter 23. So the reader has a ways to go to completely read the book. This is probably worth while to do. This book even inspires one to read and/or read again works by Hemingway and Dos Passos, so its true value is probably in nudging readers to do that.

At one point in my reading, it got so sad that I had to put it down and watch an episode of "VEEP" on DVD Blue Ray to cheer up. The irony is that with all of the hoopla of the roaring twenties and the thirties with the expatriates and the Paris crowd and the bars and cafes and sports and action and adventure and travels all over the globe on sometimes very rudimentary or unreliable transportation, these people were not having a very good time.
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An Interesting Friendship
by Patricia A. Reitsma (4 out of 5 stars)
May 31, 2017

I began reading Dos Possos in the late 50's and his writings made me a pacifist, which I still am at almost 80 years of age. I loved the way he combined words and used the camera eye to set time frames. I never really liked Hemingway and thought him to be a braggart and a bully. Reading this book confirmed my thoughts. Did they really have a friendship? It is hard to imagine but perhaps a relationship is a better word. I found the book very well written and researched and would recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century literature.
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An even-handed, well researched and footnoted account of the friendship of two remarkable but differ
by GeoUser (5 out of 5 stars)
May 12, 2017

I particularly enjoyed the sympathetic but nevertheless critical treatment of Hemingway, both his genius and his deep flaws. Dos Passos, a man of great humanity and literary ability, sometimes appears naive alongside Hemingway's self-serving pragmatism, which sometimes verges on selfishness.
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Two of the Greats
by Doctor Strong (5 out of 5 stars)
August 23, 2017

Having taught Hemingway and Fitzgerald for years, I am delighted that the clear picture of Hemingway's experiences and relationships gives his novels and short stories new meaning. Moreover, the text has piqued my interest in Dos Passos' writing, so Manhattan Transfer is now on the reading list. Ambulance Drivers is a well written text with ample citations and explanation about incidents in the lives of these two writers. The style is free and easy; the writing flows, and the information appears to be well researched. I like it very much. This is not a text which obfuscates what the author wishes to say, and there are some excellent lines.
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Revolver
by James Ashley Shea (5 out of 5 stars)
August 3, 2017

Describing his own pain, Hemingway said he threw away his revolver. "The temptation to finish the job was so acute." The pain had certainly been real, the revolver not -- the Red Cross had not issued revolvers to the men.

Morris, you wimp, a 60-something biographer wouldn't carry a revolver unless the Red Cross specifically ordered him to, but Hemingway was a young stud with red blood in his veins. Of course he had a revolver, and could have got one in a dozen ways. You have no imagination.
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Good Read
by Kris P. Bacon (5 out of 5 stars)
December 17, 2018

If you enjoy Hemingway, you will like this book. If you like John Dos Pasos, you will like this book. Very interesting and I learned a lot about these two authors.
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Interesting Looks at Hemingway and His Best Friend
by Anglotopia (5 out of 5 stars)
May 10, 2017

I found this to be an interesting look at two literary greats. Except I feel like the book does a better job at portraying Dos Passos than it does Hemingway. Not much new ground is covered in this book that isn't done elsewhere. It covers one of my favorite eras of history in the perspective of two very different writers. While Dos Passos is considered to be a great American writer, he's not as readable and as well known as Hemingway. The book doesn't answer the question of who was 'greater' but I definitely think it was Hemingway.
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Morris always delivers interesting biographies...
by NMwritergal (5 out of 5 stars)
April 8, 2017

...that I might not normally read--and this is another one. I first read/listened to The Rose Man of Sing Sing (which remains my favorite), something I'd have never found on my own but it was recommended to me so I listened! Now, if Morris writes it, I'll read it right away.

I knew little about Hemingway (other than reading some of his work) and even less about Dos Passos, so not only did I learn about the two men, but what I always appreciate about Morris is how he puts everything into the wider historical context.

There's a little bit of everything in this book: War, friendship, rivalry, marriage, what it means to be a writer, history, etc. I was really fascinated by the ambulance drivers in general; it's a part of WW1 that I knew nothing about!
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Loved it!
by David O. Stewart (5 out of 5 stars)
April 3, 2017

From the age when novelists were central celebrities in American culture, THE AMBULANCE DRIVERS offers a fascinating look at two of the most gifted writers America has produced. The book starts with the searing experiences that Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos shared in World War I, driving ambulances in the oft-forgotten Italian war with Austria, and how the slaughter and terror brought them together and shaped their writing through extraordinary creativity. Hemingway was the matinee idol, risk-loving star from the beginning, with a rare sensibility for story-telling and words, while Dos Passos was the tortured intellectual, struggling with the moral issues of his age. That they were most intimate friends, then rivals, then estranged, is the compelling journey of this witty, insightful book. Loved it!
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The ups and downs of two literary lives
by Anonymouse,Top Contributor: Cooking (4 out of 5 stars)
March 28, 2017

I knew only the basics about Ernest Hemingway and even less about John Dos Passos, so this book was interesting to read despite Mr. Morris's unmistakable preference for Dos Passos over Hemingway. The commonality of ambulance driving is an excellent starting point to the lives of the two men, tying them together through their shared, yet profoundly different, experience of war.

Dos Passos was a bit older than Hemingway and was able to join the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps and serve under fire in France and Italy. He found the war horrifying and evil, driven by greed and stupidity. Like many other liberals of the period, he embraced the ideals of communism and even went to the USSR to study.

Hemingway lied about his age to join up but was still too late to experience the war in Europe at its worst. He was seriously injured very soon after his arrival in Italy and was proclaimed a hero. This was all rather grand and Hemingway developed an idea of war as exhilarating and manly.

Dos Passos continued to hate war and other forms of oppression but over time he came to realize that under Soviet communism the end justified the means, even if the means were vile. Hemingway when faced with the reality of the Spanish Civil War, recognized that war is brutal and stupid.

This interweaving of political opinions amid the ups and downs of their very different writing careers, forms the basis of Mr. Morris's work. Once strong, over time the men's friendship failed, and if we are to believe Mr. Morris, it was Hemingway who severed the tie with his jealousy and reluctance to celebrate Dos Passos' (or anyone's) success.

I enjoyed Mr. Morris's discussion of the very different writing styles of Hemingway and Dos Passos and I find myself interested in rereading Hemingway, a writer I have ignored for a long time.

I received a review copy of "The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War" by James McGrath Morris (Da Capo Press) through NetGalley.com.

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