Passos, John Dos: - John Rodrigo Dos Passos (January 14, 1896-September 28, 1970) was born in Chicago and graduated from Harvard University. He was one of the great American authors and artists of the 20th century. After the trip to the Soviet Union, he started to move away from the Stalinist practises that he witnessed there. He was one of the first American authors to use the stream of consciousness technique, a combination of mixing historical artefacts with fictional characters that helps to create more realism and improve the understanding of the novel's historical importance. This method has been frequently copied and is a staple of modern stories. His famous works include Manhattan Transfer (1925), Three Soilders (1921), The Big Money (1936), and The 42nd Parallel (1930).