Sister Carrie (Barnes & Noble Classics S - Theodore Dreiser [2]
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Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser was born on August 27, 1871, in Terre Haute, Indiana, the ninth of ten children. The family lived in poverty, and his brothers and sisters were rebellious and wild. At age sixteen, Theodore left home for Chicago, where he took a variety of jobs. With the help of a former teacher, he enrolled at Indiana University in 1889, but after a year he left school, aimless and uncertain about his future. By 1892 Dreiser was working as a journalist, first in Chicago and then in St. Louis. He moved to New York City in 1894, took over editorship of a monthly music magazine, and contributed his own editorials, reviews, and articles for publication. He became a prodigious writer, trying his hand at everything from short stories to poetry to drama, and published diverse articles in such popular magazines as Harper’s Monthly, McClure’s, and Cosmopolitan. He married Sara Osbourne White, a schoolteacher, in 1898.
In 1900 Dreiser published his first novel, Sister Carrie, to mixed reviews. The book sold just 500 copies before controversy over its frank treatment of sexual relations and unpunished immorality prompted the publisher to withdraw it from sale. Dreiser began a second novel but fell into a depression so severe that his brother placed him in a sanatorium to recuperate. Emerging from treatment, Dreiser resumed editing and eventually secured a job as editor-in-chief with Butterick Publications. In 1907 Sister Carrie was reissued and Dreiser’s literary accomplishment acknowledged, but in 1910 a romance with the daughter of a co-worker forced him to resign his post at Butterick. Undaunted, Dreiser completed his second novel, Jennie Gerhardt (1911) and, inspired by its modest success, became a full-time writer.
Never a faithful husband, Dreiser permanently separated from his wife in 1912, but the couple never divorced. Politically, he became involved with the progressive movement, and his writings often focused on social injustice and materialism. Thanks in part to the positive reviews of social critic H. L. Mencken, Dreiser’s literary fame grew, but his publishers frequently censored his controversial style of realism. Dreiser devoted the next several years to various genres, including travel writing, memoirs, philosophical essays, short stories, and even poetry; he also wrote several major novels, including the first two books in the “Trilogy of Desire” series and The “Genius” (1915).
In 1919 Dreiser began an affair with his young cousin, Helen Richardson. They moved to Hollywood, where he began The Bulwark, a novel about the struggles of a Quaker family that would be published in 1946, and sought work in the movie industry. In 1925 he published An American Tragedy, a novel about a sensational murder; his first commercial success, the book won critical acclaim for its fearless, brutally honest observations of American society. In 1927 Dreiser visited the Soviet Union, and during the Great Depression, he was an outspoken critic of capitalism. Though he wrote little fiction during this time, Dreiser developed an abiding interest in the natural sciences and was involved in many social causes. His wife died in 1942, and two years later Dreiser married Helen Richardson. Theodore Dreiser died on December 28, 1945, in Hollywood, California. Two novels—The Bulwark and The Stoic, the final installment in the “Trilogy of Desire”—were published posthumously.
The World of Theodore Dreiser
and Sister Carrie
1871 Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser is born on August 27 in Terre Haute, Indiana, the ninth of ten surviving children. His father, John Paul Dreiser, is a German immigrant and strict Roman Catholic millworker who is unable to lift the family out of poverty or exert authority over his unruly children. His mother, Sarah Schänäb, who has a more romantic nature, passes no judgments on the children and wields more influence. Theodore’s sisters will be sexually uninhibited; the brothers will leave home as soon as they can. American novelist Stephen Crane and French writer