Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser, (1971-1945), was an American author and journalist who was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and educated at the University of Indiana. Theodore Dreiser began newspaper reporting for the Chicago Daily Globe in 1892, and was dramatic editor and traveling correspondent of the St. Louis Globe Democrat from 1892 to 1893, and traveling correspondent for the St. Louis Republic from 1893 to 1894.

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Easton Press Theodore Dreiser books

  Sister Carrie - 1981

Franklin Library Theodore Dreiser books

  Sister Carrie - 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature - 1979
  Best Short Stories of Theodore Dreiser - Collected Stories of the World's Greatest Writers - 1980
  An American Tragedy - 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature - 1981
  Sister Carrie - World's Best Loved Books - 1982

Dreiser's career as a novelist began in 1900 with the book Sister Carrie, which he wrote in the intervals between writing for various magazines. Public outcry for the book for its realistic treatment of sexual problems caused the publisher to temporarily suspend sales of the book. Theodore Dreiser continued writing, and was managing editor of Broadway Magazine from 1906 to 1907, and editor in chief of Butterick publications from 1907 to 1910. By the time his second novel, Jenny Gerhardt, was published in 1911, Theodore Dreiser books had found influential supporter, including Frank Norris, H. G. Wells, and Hugh Walpole, and he was able to devote himself solely to writing his books. His books continued to excite controversy, In The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914), he drew a harsh portrait of a type of ruthless businessman. In The Genius (1915) he presented a study of the artistic temperament in a mercenary society. This last novel increased his influence among young American writers, who acclaimed him as the leader of the new school of social realism. Theodore Dreiser, however, did not come to meet his real fame until 1925, when his book American Tragedy has great popular success. The novel was dramatized, and it was made into a movie. Although Theodore Dreiser's style was regarded by some critics as clumsy and awkward, he was generally regarded as a pioneer in American Literature. The author Sinclair Lewis hailed his book Sister Carrie as "The first book free of English literature influence." Toward the end of his career Theodore Dreiser devoted himself largely to promoting his radical political views. He had visited the Soviet Union and, in his book Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928) avowed his sympathy for that country. Six months before his death , it was announced that he had become a member of the United States Communist Party. His last book, The Bulwark, was published the year after his death, Other books by Theodore Dreiser include Plays of the Natural and Supernatural (1916), A Hoosier Holiday (1916), Twelve Men (1919), A Book About Myself (1922), The Color of a Great City (1923), Moods (1926), Chains (1927), A Gallery of Women (1929), Dawn (1931), Tragic America (1923), and America Is Worth Saving (1941).

 

Sister Carrie

Dreiser's unsparing story of a country girl's rise to riches as the mistress of a wealthy man marked the beginning of the naturalist movement in America. Both its subject matter and Dreiser's objective, non-moralizing approach made it highly controversial, and only a heavily edited version could be published in 1900.

When small-town Carrie Meeber arrives in 1890s Chicago, she cannot know what awaits. Callow, beautiful, and alone, she experiences the bitterness of temptation and hardship even as she sets her sights on a better life. Drawn by the seductive desire to rise above her social class, Carrie aspires to the top of the acting profession in New York, while the man who has become obsessed with her gambles everything for her sake and draws near the brink of destruction.

 

An American Tragedy

'An American Tragedy' is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, 'An American Tragedy' stands as Theodore Dreiser's supreme achievement.

Based on an actual criminal case, 'An American Tragedy' was the inspiration for the film 'A Place in the Sun', which won six Academy Awards and starred Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.