Theodore Dreiser

Vocation

Notable

American writer, a realistic novelist who interpreted life frankly. Raised in poverty, he worked in newspapers as a journalist and an editor in 1907-10. Lumbering, homely, ungainly, he was nonetheless attractive to women. Not so with publishers, with whom he had long struggles. His "American Tragedy" was banned in Boston in 1925 and subjected to severe criticism elsewhere. His work also includes "A Place in the Sun" and several autobiographical works. Puritan American denounced him as a purveyor of lewdness. In his later years, Dreiser was involved with Communism. He died 12/28/1945, Hollywood, CA. The biography by Richard Lingeman draws on Dreiser's often explicit diaries, giving accounts of his seductions and betrayals, his crass, anti-Semitic slurs and damning prose of Stalin. He comes through as a dogged, graceless man, though a great writer with his look into the often flawed human soul. Link to Wikipedia biography