DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945.
Theodore Dreiser, a controversial literary figure in American letters, was born in
Terre Haute, Ind., on Aug. 27, 1871.
His parents were John Paul and Sarah Schanab
Dreiser. The father was the object of Theodore Dreiser's extreme
dislike; for his mother he held an admiration amounting to worship. His book, d
Hoosier Holiday, says: "He [the senior Dreiser] was a crank, a tenth rate
Saint Simon of Assisi … He worked, ate, played, slept and dreamed
religion."–And of his mother: "I certainly had one of
the most perfect mothers ever a man had … an open, uneducated, wondering,
dreamy mind, none of the customary, conscious principles with which so many
conventional souls are afflicted. A happy, hopeful, animal mother … A
pagan mother … A great poet mother … A great hearted mother
…"
Throughout his autobiographical writing, long passages of which are introspective,
Dreiser refers constantly to the poverty of his family and appears to boast of the
difficulties in which its members became involved. There are mentioned in d Hoosier
Holiday, besides the father and mother: sisters, several of whom "ran away
and (in seemingly, only in so far as the beliefs of my father were concerned) went
to the bad. They did not go to the bad actually … although I might
disagree with many as to what is bad …"; a brother, Paul
(Dresser, author and composer of "On the Banks of the Wabash Far
Away") who "got into jail"; a brother who
"finally died of drunkenness," his brother Rome, who followed the
famih" on one of its many moves to a new town only "to get drunk
and disgrace us"; a ne'er-do-well uncle and his wife who had four
children, "one of whom, the eldest, became a thief (but a very clever one,
I have heard); the second a railroad brakeman; the third the wife of an idle country
loafer … the fourth, a hunchbacked boy, was to me, at least, a veritable
sprite of iniquity …"; and "a half uncle … a
stingy, greedy, well meaning Baptist …"
In addition to these relatives, Dreiser reports most of the friends and acquaintances
of his youth as eventually becoming bar-flies, odd-job men, women of ill repute (or
wives of lawyers, doctors or tradesmen–a status which he regarded as less
fortunate than that preceding), as having been imprisoned, killed by accidental
violence, or, in the happier cases, as having disappeared leaving no trace.
The bare facts of the Dreiser family's history, shorn of his colorful
trimming, seem to be these:
The father had owned a woolen mill in Sullivan, Ind.
Fire had destroyed it, and its loss had taken his home and whatever other assets he
may have held. The family (there would eventually be ten children) then removed to Terre Haute, where Dreiser senior became either foreman or superintendent of
another woolen mill. There Theodore was born.
By the time Theodore was seven some of the older children were working (Paul had
become a minstrel show man and had changed his name to the supposedly more
appropriate "Dresser"), but hard t!mes, or perhaps the
difficulties to peace inherent in the life of a strict Catholic father and a
"pagan… animal mother," caused Mrs.
Dreiser to take the younger children back to the town of Sullivan.
At Sullivan the monetary situation grew so difficult that after two years Paul Dresser–always to be patronized by the
younger, more intellectual Theodore–brought his mother and her children
to Evansville, where he supported the brood for two years.
After this period the family moved to Warsaw, Ind.,
where John Dreiser had apparently found employment. Theodore
certainly attended a parochial school in Evansville, probably some sort of school in
Sullivan, and possibly in Terre Haute. Now he entered the public school at Warsaw
and continued there through high school. After working in Chicago for a time, he was
enrolled at Indiana University, where he remained through his
eighteenth year.
In 1891 he began newspaper work on the CHICAGO GLOBE, going to St. Louis the next year, where he was employed
until 1894. In 1895 he became
editor of the magazine EVERY MONTH, leaving after a year to
do various assignments for HARPER'S, McCLURE'S,
CENTURY, COSMOPOLITAN and MUNSEY'S magazines until 1905-06, when he edited SMITH'S MAGAZINE. In 1906-07 he edited BROADWAY MAGAZINE and from
1907 to 1910 served as
editor-in-chief of the Butterick Publications (DELINEATOR, DESIGNER, NEW IDEA,
etc.). Later he became editor of the AMERICAN SPECTATOR, continuing until January, 1934.
Dreiser was twice married–his first wife, Sarah Osborne White Dreiser,
died in 1942, and his second wife, Helen, survived him.
The first of his novels, Sister Carrie, appeared in 1900,
when he was experienced as a periodical contributor and editor but was by no means
well known. The book was startlingly frank in its treatment of delicate subject
matter, and Dreiser's publishers withdrew it almost immediately, but the
notoriety it acquired by its suppression was sufficient to gain a recognition of
sorts for its author. Other fairly successful books followed, and in 1916 Dreiser produced The Genius, which enjoyed the benefits
of being banned in several cities with resulting publicity. His next books sold
widely, and, after a suitable period, another sensational and frequently banned
novel, An American Tragedy, added a stimulant to his fame, which lasted to within a
few years of his death on Dec. 28, 1945.
A half century or so–during which the sensationalism which marked his best
known novels will have had time to mellow–should give some clear decision
as to Theodore Dreiser's contribution to Twentieth century literature. During his life he was, to
transplanted Hoosier critic George Jean Nathan, "the
most important American author"; to many a reader of sound but less exotic
taste he was only a gloomy and dirty-minded man whose prose was tortuous. To
Llewelyn Powys, he was possessed of "great lumbering imagination, full of
divine curiosity … I never fail to feel awe at the struggles of this
ungainly giant, whose limbs are still half buried in clay." H. L. Mencken
said of him, "He reached heights of unintelligence as great as any of the
heights of intelligence that Aristotle achieved." To many a Midwesterner he
seemed to be only a writer who could find a rotten spot in every apple. Jacob Piatt
Dunn, ardent Hoosier, was admittedly irritated by Dreiser's rumbling
philosophical wanderings and cavalier treatment of his Indiana friends and relatives
in A Hoosier Holiday. Putting the common plaint in words, Dunn wrote: "He
was afflicted with the Marie Bashkirtseff idea that it is fine to bare your soul to
the world, unconscious of the fact that the average soul is more presentable in a
fig-leaf–much more so in pajamas."
Information from Who's Who in America;
Dunn–Indiana and Indianans; Dreiser–A Hoosier Holiday;
Dictionary of American Biography; Living Authors; etc., etc.
- Sister Carrie. 1900.
Search "Sister Carrie" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Jennie Gerhardt: a Novel. New York, 1911.
Search "Jennie Gerhardt: a Novel" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Financier. New York, 1912.
Search "The Financier" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - A Traveler at Forty. New York, 1913.
Search "A Traveler at Forty" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Titan. New York, 1914.
Search "The Titan" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural.
New York, 1916.
Search "Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - A Hoosier Holiday. New York, 1916.
Search "A Hoosier Holiday" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Genius. New York, 1917.
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Close X - The Bulwark. New York, 1917.
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Close X - Free and Other Stories. New York, 1918.
Search "Free and Other Stories" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Hand of the Potter; a Tragedy in 4 Acts.
New York, 1918.
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Close X - Twelve Men. New York, 1919.
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Close X - Hey, Rub-a-Dub-Dub; a Book of the Mystery and
Wonder and Terror of Life. New York, 1920.
Search "Hey, Rub-a-Dub-Dub; a Book of the Mystery and
Wonder and Terror of Life" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - A Book About Myself. New York,
1922. (Reissued in 1931 as Newspaper
Days.)
Search "A Book About Myself" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Color of a Great City. New
York, 1923.
Search "The Color of a Great City" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - An American Tragedy. New York,
1926. 2 vols.
Search "An American Tragedy" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Moods, Cadenced and Declaimed. New
York, 1926.
Search "Moods, Cadenced and Declaimed" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Chains; Lesser Novels and Stories. New
York, 1927.
Search "Chains; Lesser Novels and Stories" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Dreiser Looks at Russia. New
York, 1928.
Search "Dreiser Looks at Russia" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - A Gallery of Women. New York,
1929.
Search "A Gallery of Women" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - My City. New York, 1929.
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Close X - Epitaph; a Poem. New York, 1930.
Search "Epitaph; a Poem" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Fine Furniture. New York, 1930. 6 vols.
Search "Fine Furniture" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Dawn; a History of Myself. New
York, 1931.
Search "Dawn; a History of Myself" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Tragic America. New York, 1932.
Search "Tragic America" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - America Is Worth Saving. New
York, 1941.
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Close X - The Bulwark. New York, 1946.
Search "The Bulwark" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - Best Short Stories. (Edited byHoward Fast.) Cleveland, O., 1947.
Search "Best Short Stories" by DREISER, THEODORE: 1871-1945. in:
Close X - The Stoic. New York, 1947.
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