Novelist John Dos Passos lived at 3 Washington Square in New York City for a time. His birthday is January 14. Written 75 years ago, his words seem as pertinent as ever:

In the last twenty-five years a change has come over the visual habits of Americans... From being a wordminded people we are becoming an eyeminded people.

and

A satirist is a man whose flesh creeps so at the ugly and the savage and the incongruous aspects of society that he has to express them as brutally and nakedly as possible to get relief.

"Grosz Comes to America," Esquire, 1936