Work
Jones called his first novel They Shall Inherit the Laughter. It was a thinly disguised autobiographical novel of his experiences in Robinson immediately after World War II. After several rejections —with various complaints and claims for the work being too shrill and lacking perspective— he abandoned it and began writing From Here to Eternity.
Charles Scribner's Sons published Eternity in 1951 and it won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. The Modern Library Board later named it one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.
His second published novel, Some Came Running (1957), had its roots in the abandoned first effort. In contrast to Eternity, it was savaged by the critics. They were especially harsh with the frequently misspelled words and punctuation errors; they didn't recognize that such elements were a conscious style choice by Jones to evoke the provinciality of the novel's characters and setting. Jones apparently played around with this style in several short stories written at about the same time as Some Came Running (later collected in The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories), only to abandon it altogether by the time he finished The Thin Red Line in 1962, in favor of the blunt but more grammatically sound style most associated with Jones today. Some Came Running was immediately adapted as film starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, which was critically acclaimed and nominated for several Oscars.
Jones would not live long enough to see the completion of his last novel, Whistle, (Jones knew he was dying of congestive heart failure while writing it). However, Jones did leave behind copious notes for Willie Morris to complete the final section after his death, and Whistle was published only a year later, in 1978. That completed 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."
While many have come to recognize Jones' genius and effectiveness, perhaps the most unusual is Jimmy Buffett by poignantly memorializing him in his song "Sending the Old Man Home" with the line that the retiring Admiral won't forget his battles at sea but will only have "the memories, or great books by James Jones."
Read more about this topic: James Jones (author)
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The most fitting monuments this nation can build are schoolhouses and homes for those who do the work of the world. It is no answer to say that they are accustomed to rags and hunger. In this world of plenty every human being has a right to food, clothes, decent shelter, and the rudiments of education.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“It is not easy to imagine how little interested a scientist usually is in the work of any other, with the possible exception of the teacher who backs him or the student who honors him.”
—Jean Rostand (1894–1977)