[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/james_jones.jpg]]
->''"I'm an American, and always will be. I happen to love that big, awkward, sprawling country very much — and its big, awkward, sprawling people."''

James Ramon Jones (November 6, 1921 – May 9, 1977) was an American author who wrote about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and life DownOnTheFarm.

Jones was born and raised in Robinson, Illinois. He enlisted in the Army at age 18, and was thrown right into the middle of the Big War, which would give him quite a bit to write about. He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to his first published novel, ''Literature/FromHereToEternity.'' ''Film/TheThinRedLine'' reflected his combat experiences on Guadalcanal. His last novel, ''Whistle,'' was based on his hospital stay in Memphis, Tennessee, recovering from his wounds received on 'Canal. (These three books are frequently referred to as his "war trilogy.")

His second published novel, ''Some Came Running,'' is a very thinly disguised autobiographical novel of his experiences in Robinson after World War II. He actually wrote it before ''Eternity,'' but it was released later.

Both ''[[Literature/FromHereToEternity Eternity]]'' and ''Running'' were made into critically acclaimed films during the Fifties (both starring Creator/FrankSinatra; he won an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] for ''Eternity''), and ''The Thin Red Line'' was put to film in 1964, then [[Film/TheThinRedLine again in 1998]] by Terence Malick, who was inspired to get off the bench after 20 years of inactivity by Jones's novel.

No connection to Creator/JamesEarlJones.
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!!Bibliography
* ''Literature/FromHereToEternity'' (1951)
* ''Some Came Running'' (1957)
* ''Film/TheThinRedLine'' (1962)
* ''Go to the Widow-Maker'' (1967), Jones's "underwater novel" about skin-diving
* ''The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories'' (1968, short stories)
* ''The Merry Month Of May'' (1971), about the 1968 student revolutions in Paris
* ''A Touch of Danger'' (1973), a murder mystery
* ''Whistle'' (1978)

!!Tropes featured in his work:
* AuthorFilibuster: Jones starts ''Running'' with a too-long disclaimer that the fictional Parkman, Indiana is ''not'' his hometown of Robinson. To which anyone who lived there (especially if they were portrayed not-too-positively in the book) said, "Yeah, right."
* CreatorCameo: Jones has a cameo in the film adaptation of ''Some Came Running'' as one of the protagonist's opponents in a poker game.
* DownOnTheFarm: ''Some Came Running''
* {{Expy}}: His books share many characters in common without them actually being the same characters. "Prew" Prewitt (''Eternity'') is essentially the same character as Witt (''Thin Red Line''); Winch (''Whistle'') is similar to Welsh (''Thin Red Line''); etc.
* MilitaryAndWarfareTropes: with the possible exception of HotSubOnSubAction, Jones's trilogy will touch on every single one at some point. He was good like that.
* PosthumousCollaboration: Jones did not live to see the completion of his last novel, ''Whistle''. It was finished to his instructions by Willie Morris, who would go on to write ''My Dog Skip'' in addition to a fond biography of Jones.
* RealPersonCameo: Jones is one of the poker players in the film adaptation of ''Running''.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Prewitt in ''Eternity'', and Witt (the similarity of name is intentional) in ''Thin Red Line''.
* WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma: ''Running'' features intentional misspellings and punctuation errors, a conscious effort by Jones to replicate the rural characters and setting. This does not apply to his war trilogy.
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