Helen Howie collection of James Jones materials, 1940 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

James Ramon Jones was born November 6, 1921 in Robinson, Illinois to Ramon and Ada (Blessing) Jones. Upon graduating from high school, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939 and served with the 27^th Infantry in Hawaii. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor and before his deployment to Guadalcanal, Jones took courses at the University of Hawaii (1942). Jones was wounded in January 1943 and sent to a hospital in Memphis, from which he was honorably discharged. He moved back to Illinois and lived with Harry and Lowney Handy, beginning a career as a novelist while taking more courses from New York University (1945). While living with the Handy's, Jones assisted in the formation and development of the Handy Writer's Colony by donating some of the proceeds from his first novel.

Jones's first novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), which ends at the attack on Pearl Harbor and focuses on a group of regular enlistees, and won the National Book Award for Fiction. His later novels also depict war, including The Pistol (1959) and The Thin Red Line (1962), but Jones did not consider himself a war novelist. On the contrary, he sought to depict "the regimentation of souls, the systemized reduction of men to animal level, the horrors of pointless death, [and] the exhaustion of living in constant fear" that came with battle, noting that "modern war destroys human character." In 1958, Jones and his new wife, Gloria Mosolino, relocated to Paris where they became part of a group of writers based there in the post-war era.  Jones also worked on film scripts.

Jones visited Vietnam as a journalist for The New York Times Magazine during the Vietnam War, and the trip would inspire the nonfiction work Viet Journal (1974). Jones died in Southhampton, New York on May 9, 1977.

Jones's publications, in order of completion, include:

Jones, J. (1951). From Here to Eternity. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Jones, J. (1958). Some Came Running. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Jones, J. (1959). The Pistol. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Jones, J. (1962). The Thin Red Line. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Jones, J. (1967). Go to the Widow-Maker. Delacorte Press.

Jones, J. (1968). The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories. Collins.

Jones, J. (1971). The Merry Month of May. Delacorte Press.

Jones, J. (1973). A Touch of Danger. Doubleday Press.

Jones, J. (1974). Viet Journal. Delacorte Press.

Jones, J. (1975). WWII. Grosset & Dunlap.

Jones, J. (finished by Willie Morris). (1978). Whistle. Delacorte Press.

Sources

"James Jones: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center." Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas, Austin. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00208/hrc-00208.html.

Mitgang, Herbert. "James Jones, Novelist, 55, Dies; Best Known for 'Here to Eternity.'" The New York Times, May 10, 1977.

"Who is James Jones?" The James Jones Literary Society. https://jamesjonesliterarysociety.org/who-is-james-jones/.