Theodore Dreiser

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Theodore Dreiser, photographer Carl van Vechten , November 8, 1933

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (born August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute , Indiana , † December 28, 1945 in Los Angeles ) was an American writer and next to Stephen Crane and Frank Norris a main proponent of literary naturalism in America.

In his works he depicts the demise of human existences in modern city life in a simple, sometimes clumsy, heavy style. The themes of the novels revolve around sexuality, money, power and the resulting crimes. Only the strongest can assert themselves in them.

life and work

Theodore Dreiser was born as the twelfth child of John Paul Dreiser and his wife Sarah in Indiana and baptized Catholic. His father was a German immigrant from Mayen , his mother came from a Mennonite family. After dropping out of Indiana University , Dreiser was a simple worker, became a journalist at the Chicago Globe and later at the St. Louis Globe Democrat . In 1893 he married Sarah White, from whom he lived separated from 1909.

In the summer of 1899 Dreiser started to write short stories as McEwen and the people of shimmering slavers ( McEwen of the Shining Slave Makers ).

His first novel Sister Carrie (1900, filmed as Carrie in 1952 ), which is about a woman who moves from the country to the city of Chicago , was unsuccessful. Only Jennie Gerhardt (1911) found recognition. In the Cowperwood trilogy ( The Financier , 1912; The Titan , 1914 and The Stoic , posthumously 1947) the biography of the industrial magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes formed the basis for the design of the main character Cowperwood. The artist novel The Genius (1915, German Das Genie , 1929) fell victim to censorship . Dreiser's best-known and most successful work was An American Tragedy (1925), which was filmed twice and adapted for the stage by Erwin Piscator .

In April 1912, Dreiser planned to return to the United States on board the new RMS Titanic at the end of his first European vacation . A British publicist friend of his, however, advised him to take a cheaper passage, so that Dreiser ultimately drove back on board the Kroonland .

Dreiser toured the Soviet Union for months in 1927 ( Dreiser Looks at Russia , 1928). He became a member of the United States Communist Party in the last year of his life in the United States . In the 1920s his works found greater recognition in Europe and the USSR than in his homeland. In 1935 he sent a message of greeting to the Paris congress of anti-fascist writers, which was mainly organized by communists.

While the concept of his works has been criticized as clumsy at times, Dreiser's concise style, characterized by psychological empathy, found recognition in the criticism. In addition, he was certified as being highly authentic in depicting living conditions in North America. His socialist hopes for the future are reflected in his later publications.

Works (selection)

  • Sister Carrie , 1900
  • Jennie Gerhardt , 1911
  • Trilogy of Desires
    • The financier , 1912
    • The Titan , 1914
    • The Stoic , 1947
  • The Steadfast (trilogy 1912, 1914, 1947)
  • The genius , 1915
  • A Hoosier Holiday , 1916
  • An American tragedy , 1925
  • Solon the Quaker , 1946

literature

Overall representations

  • Helen Dreiser: My life with Dreiser . Zsolnay-Verlag 1994
  • Miriam Gogol (Ed.): Theodore Dreiser. Beyond naturalism . New York Univ. Press, New York et al. a. 1995. ISBN 0-8147-3073-6
  • Jerome Loving: The last titan. A life of Theodore Dreiser . Univ. of California Press, Berkeley et al. a. 2005. ISBN 0-520-23481-2
  • Keith Newlin: A Theodore Dreiser encyclopedia . Greenwood, Westport, Conn. u. a. 2003. ISBN 0-313-31680-5
  • Supriya: The duality of mind and material in American literature. Theodore Dreiser, the man and the novelist . Book Enclave, Jaipur 2005. ISBN 978-81-8152-120-0
  • WA Swanberg: Dreiser . New York 1965

Individual aspects

  • Christa Drescher-Schröder: The image of Chicago in Theodore Dreiser's Cowperwood trilogy with special consideration of 'The Titan . RG Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1980. ISBN 3-88323-136-3
  • Irene Gammel: Sexualizing power in naturalism. Theodore Dreiser and Frederick Philip Grove . Univ. of Calgary Press, Calgary 1994. ISBN 1-895176-39-5
  • Kurt Müller: Identity and Role with Theodore Dreiser. An examination of the novel from the perspective of role theory . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 1991. (= contributions to English and American literature; 10) ISBN 3-506-70820-1
  • Donald Pizer (Ed.): Critical essays on Theodore Dreiser . Hall, Boston, Mass. 1981. ISBN 0-8161-8257-4
  • Klaus Poenicke: American naturalism. Crane, Norris, Deiser . Darmstadt 1982
  • Shawn Saint Jean: Pagan Dreiser. Songs from American mythology . Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press u. a., Madison, NJ et al. a. 2001. ISBN 0-8386-3887-2
  • Miyoko Takeda: The quest for the reality of life. Dreiser's spiritual and aesthetic pilgrimage . Lang, New York et al. a. 1991. (= American university studies; Series 4, English language and literature; 134) ISBN 0-8204-1562-6
  • Andrea Wolff: Developing external images as a communicative process. An examination of the images of the Soviet Union in Theodore Dreiser's and Dorothy Thompson's travelogues . Kova, Hamburg 1995. ISBN 3-86064-261-8
  • Louis J. Zanine: Mechanism and mysticism. The influence of science on the thought and work of Theodore Dreiser . Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1993. ISBN 0-8122-3171-6

Web links

Wikiquote: Theodore Dreiser  - Quotes
Commons : Theodore Dreiser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ An American Tragedy. Adapted for the stage by Erwin Piscator based on the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser . Berlin, Wiesbaden: Ahn and Simrock no year - see Thomas George Evans: Piscator in the American Theater. New York, 1939-1951 . Ann Arbor: University of Wisconsin Press 1968. pp. 58-80.
  2. ↑ a b Kindler's New Literature Lexicon
  3. ^ Ilja Ehrenburg : People - Years - Life (Memoirs), Munich 1962/65, Volume II 1923–1941, page 369, ISBN 3-463-00512-3
personal data
SURNAME Dreiser, Theodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dreiser, Theodore Herman Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Terre Haute , Indiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1945
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States