Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser was born to a large, poor family in the American Midwest. His father was a millworker who struggled to find employment and a strict adherent to Roman Catholicism. This led Dreiser to associate his father’s lack of productivity with religion. In this period, Dreiser also developed a profound desire for material wealth, something that would serve as inspiration for his works. After studying for a year at Indiana University, Dreiser became a reporter and moved to the East Coast. During these young adult years, he read T. H. Huxley, John Tyndall, and Herbert Spencer, and came to adopt a naturalistic worldview: humans are helpless and wholly subject to the influences of their environment. Dreiser married Sara White in 1898, but his extramarital affairs led them to permanently separate some 14 years later. Dreiser began to write Sister Carrie in 1899 and Doubleday published the book. However, the company was hesitant to do so, uncomfortable with the fact that the novel’s main character is never punished for her immorality, and thus decided to limit advertising for the novel. Consequently, Sister Carrie sold fewer than 500 copies when it first came out. Dreiser’s lack of success with the book and his marital troubles led him into a deep depression. Fortunately, his brother, Paul Dresser, arranged for Dreiser’s treatment in a sanitarium. After recovering, Dreiser became a successful editor for women’s magazines but was forced to resign after a scandal with his assistant’s daughter. Dreiser returned to writing fiction and enjoyed some success until the Great Depression. Dreiser died soon after joining the American Communist Party.