Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, the twelfth of thirteen children in a poor, devoutly Catholic family. He worked as a journalist in Chicago, St. Louis, and New York before publishing his first novel, Sister Carrie, in 1900—a book so frank in its treatment of sexuality and moral ambiguity that its own publisher tried to suppress it. Dreiser spent the next two decades fighting censorship and financial hardship, establishing himself as the leading American literary naturalist. This author hub collects 2 works in the Canon Compass ranking, led by An American Tragedy.
Start with An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, ranked #182 in the Canon Compass list.
Featured Books
Dreiser's An American Tragedy: a young man's desperate climb and fatal fall. Ambition, desire, and the dark side of the American Dream.
Dreiser's groundbreaking naturalist novel traces a young woman's rise and a man's ruin in turn-of-the-century urban America.