Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser , 1871-1945, American novelist, b. Terre Haute, Ind. A pioneer of naturalism in American literature, Dreiser wrote novels reflecting his mechanistic view of life, a concept that held humanity as the victim of such ungovernable forces as economics, biology, society, and even chance. In his works, conventional morality is unimportant, consciously virtuous behavior having little to do with material success and happiness. While his style and language tended to be clumsy and plodding, he played an important role in introducing a new realism and sexual candor into American fiction. Dreiser was born into a large and poor family. His education was irregular, but, with help from a sympathetic high school teacher, he spent the year 1889-90 at the Univ. of Indiana. After working as a journalist on several midwestern newspapers, in 1894 he went to New York City, where he began a career in publishing, eventually rising to the presidency of Butterick Publications.

His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), the story of a country girl's rise to material success first as the mistress of a wealthy man and then as an actress, horrified its publisher, who gave it only limited circulation. Dreiser distributed it himself, but it was consistently attacked as immoral; it was reissued in 1982 with many passages from his revised typescript restored. Jennie Gerhardt (1911), again about a "fallen woman," met with a better response; its success allowed Dreiser to work as a writer full time. With these two works, Dreiser started his long battle for the right of the novelist to portray life as he sees it.

In The Financier (1912), he turned his attention more specifically to American social and economic institutions. This novel, the first of a trilogy that includes The Titan (1914) and The Stoic (1947), describes the rise to power of a ruthless industrialist. In both The Genius (1915) and in The Bulwark (1946), Dreiser explores the failings of an American artist. An American Tragedy (1925), often considered his greatest work, tells of a poor young man's futile effort to achieve social and financial success; the attempt ends in his execution for murder. In his later life Dreiser became interested in socialism, visiting the Soviet Union as a guest of the government and writing his perceptions: Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928) and Tragic America (1931). Among his other works are such collections of short stories as Free (1918), Chains (1927), and A Gallery of Women (1929).

Bibliography: See his memoirs, A Traveler at Forty (1913), A Book About Myself (1922; republished as Newspaper Days, 1931), and Dawn (1931); his letters, ed. by R. Elias (3 vol., 1959); biographies by W. A. Swanberg (1965) and R. Lingeman (2 vol., 1986-90); studies by E. Moers (1969), F. O. Matthiessen (1951, repr. 1973), J. Lundquist (1974), and L. E. Hussman (1983).

Dreiser, Theodore (1871–1945), novelist.Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, the son of German‐American parents, Theodore Dreiser endured poverty and ostracism as a boy. The popular songwriter Paul Dresser (1857–1911) was his brother. Dreiser worked as a reporter in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and New York, absorbing impressions of urban crime and vice, wealth and poverty. His journalistic experience, Balzac's novels, and Herbert Spencer's social Darwinism turned him toward determinism and fictional realism. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), a tale of a young woman's career in the city, was attacked as immoral or found shocking and grim by most critics. Jennie Gerhardt (1911), the story of an impoverished young woman driven by family poverty to become a rich man's mistress, was championed by young writers rebelling against the Victorian idealism dominating American fiction and criticism. In The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914) Dreiser chronicled the rise of the fictional robber baron Frank Cowperwood, modeled on the Chicago financier and traction magnate Charles Yerkes (1837–1905). Dreiser's autobiographical novel The “Genius” (1915) was banned for nearly a decade. His masterpiece, An American Tragedy (1925), is a powerfully documented narrative about a young man impelled by ambition and dreams of wealth to plot the murder of his pregnant sweetheart. In the 1930s Dreiser was sporadically active in radical politics. The Bulwark (1946) tells of a Quaker whose faith is tested, and The Stoic (1947) concluded the Cowperwood trilogy.
See also Literature: Civil War to World War I; Literature: Since World War I.

Bibliography

Ellen Moers , Two Dreisers, 1969.
Richard Lingeman , Theodore Dreiser: At the Gates of the City (1871–1910), 1986.
Richard Lingeman , Theodore Dreiser: An American Journey (1910–1945), 1990.

Richard Lingeman

Dreiser, Theodore Herman Albert (1871–1945) US writer. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), was considered immoral by its publisher and Dreiser distributed it himself. Jennie Gerhardt (1911) was also attacked for its uncompromising naturalism. The Cowperwood trilogy includes The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (1947). Dresier's greatest work, An American Tragedy (1925), is based on the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown murder case of 1906.