Franklin Library leather edition of John Dos Passos' "1919," Illustrated by Reginald Marsh, a Limited edition, one of the 100 GREATEST MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE series, published in 1978. Bound in scarlet red leather, the book has navy grey French moire silk end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, hubbed spine, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition. John Dos Passos, who lived from 1896-1970, was born in CHICAGO but spent most of his youth in EUROPE with his mother.  He attended HARVARD, and like other romantic young men, was led to World War I not so much out of patriotism but by the adventure of it.  "1919" is the central novel in the trilogy, U.S.A., a vast canvas painting our national experience from the tumultuous opening of "the American century" to the Wall Street crash. Joe Williams, Dos Passos' ultimate knocked-about victim, a navy deserter and merchant seaman who is loaded and unloaded at each port like a piece of freight, gets to the heart of it all:  "This whole goddam war's a goldbrick.  It aint on the level, its crooked from A to Z . . .What I say is all bets is off. . .everyman go to hell in his own way."  The trilogy employs an experimental technique, incorporating four narrative modes, fictional narratives telling the life stories of twelve characters, collages of newspaper clippings and song lyrics labeled "Newsreel," individually labeled short biographies of public figures of the time such as Woodrow Wilson and Henry Ford and fragments of autobiographical stream of consciousness writing labeled "Camera Eye." In 1998, the Modern Library ranked U.S.A. 23rd on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.  489 pages. I offer Combined shipping.