Collections Database Manuscript & Object Collect... Extensive archival and manu... Gloria Jones collection of ... Finding AidTitle: Gloria Jones collection of James Jones papers
ID: 01/01/MSS00026
Primary Creator: Jones, Gloria (1928-2006)
Extent: 12.8 Cubic Feet
Languages: English
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 27th 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, 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/.
Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Access Restrictions: Open to researchers.
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Box 18 contains clippings (some original, some photocopies) from newspapers and magazines of articles mostly from the 1970s through the 1990s related to James Jones and his works, as well as articles written by and about his literary friends and family. Of note is a copy of the New York Times Best Sellers list from April 1978 that places The Whistle in fifth.
The remainder of Box 18 and Boxes 19 and 20 contain folders from news clipping services. These clippings reflect Jones as a writer, as well as the reception of his works.
Arrangement: The first section of Box 18 is arranged chronologically:
Folder 30: 1961-1984
Folder 31: 1984-1986
Folder 32: 1989-1997, undated
The remainder of Box 18 and Boxes 19 and 20 are arranged alphabetically by work reviewed, then chronologically.
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