Theodore Dreiser - sylwetka autora

Theodore Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist, prominent in the naturalism movement. He was born into a religious family; his father was a devout Roman Catholic, while his mother, originally from a Mennonite farming background, converted to Catholicism. Theodore was the twelfth among thirteen siblings, with ten surviving infancy. His elder brother, Paul Dresser, was a well-known songwriter.

Dreiser spent a year at Indiana University between 1889 and 1890. He took on various odd jobs before becoming a reporter for the Chicago Globe and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, where he covered crime, political events, and wrote about authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Dean Howells. He also conducted interviews with public figures such as Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison. In 1898, he married Sara White. Dreiser reflected on his childhood and early life in two autobiographical works: "Dawn" (1931) and "Newspaper Days" (originally published as "A Book About Myself" in 1922, later expanded in 1931).

Drawing from his extensive journalism experience, Dreiser vividly depicted the rapid growth of Chicago, alongside its stark poverty and extreme wealth. He was a pioneer of the naturalist movement in the U.S., greatly influenced by the works of Zola and Balzac. His characters often faced moral dilemmas and societal obstacles, embodying a Darwinian struggle for survival. Dreiser frequently addressed social inequalities in his writing, significantly impacting successive generations of writers, despite critics sometimes faulting his heavy style and lengthy digressions.

His debut novel, "Sister Carrie" (1900), tells the story of an 18-year-old girl who moves from the countryside to Chicago, becomes a kept woman, and later rises to fame as an actress in New York (the story was later adapted into a 1952 film by Wyler). "An American Tragedy" explores the quest for wealth; a young man kills his poor pregnant fiancée when the opportunity to marry a wealthy woman arises. Dreiser's "Trilogy of Desire" ("The Financier," "The Titan," and "The Stoic") follows the life of a Chicago financial magnate, drawing inspiration from the life of Yerkes, and illustrating the business mogul's drive.

Despite his challenges with censorship—some of his works were published in England—and financial hardships, as his early books didn't sell well despite critical acclaim, Dreiser continued to contribute to various publications and served as an editor, including a stint at the prestigious women's magazine Delineator in New York between 1907 and 1910. During 1911 to 1925, he managed to overcome a breakdown caused by the difficulties in publishing "Sister Carrie" and published 14 books.