Theodore Dreiser

Biography

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) was an American novelist and a founding figure of literary naturalism in the United States. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to a poor German immigrant family, he worked as a journalist before publishing his controversial debut Sister Carrie (1900), which was suppressed by its own publisher for its frank treatment of sexuality and moral ambiguity. Dreiser’s major novels—Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy, The Financier, and The Titan—depicted American life with unflinching honesty, documenting the forces of desire, money, and social Darwinism that shaped individual destinies. His massive, detailed, deterministic narratives helped transform American fiction.