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Definition: Dreiser, Theodore Herman Albert from Philip's Encyclopedia

US writer. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), was considered immoral by its publisher and Dreiser distributed it himself. The Cowperwood trilogy includes The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (1947). Dresier's greatest work, An American Tragedy (1925), is based on the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown murder case of 1906.


Dreiser, Theodore

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(drī'sӘr, –zӘr), 1871–1945, American novelist, b. Terre Haute, Ind. A pioneer of naturalism in American literature, Dreiser wrote novels reflecting his mechanistic view of life, a concept that held humanity as the victim of such ungovernable forces as economics, biology, society, and even chance. In his works, conventional morality is unimportant, consciously virtuous behavior having little to do with material success and happiness. While his style and language tended to be clumsy and plodding, he played an important role in introducing a new realism and sexual candor into American fiction. Dreiser was born into a large and poor family. His education was irregular, but, with help from a sympathetic high school teacher, he spent the year 1889–90 at the Univ. of Indiana. After working as a journalist on several midwestern newspapers, in 1894 he went to New York City, where he began a career in publishing, eventually rising to the presidency of Butterick Publications. His first novel, …
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Full text Article Dreiser, Theodore

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
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Full text Article Dreiser

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article American Tragedy, An

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
A novel (1925) by Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), written as an argument that society is at fault for allowing the environment of the slums to breed a criminal instinct that is born of material ambition. The actual event on which the novel is based is one of 16 cases that Dreiser studied of a young…
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Full text Article Dreiser, Theodore

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Theodore Dreiser, ca. 1910–1915. Photographer...
The writings and career of Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) exemplify a trio of crucial transitions in early twentieth-century American literature, culture, and society: the literary shift from realism to naturalism; the urbanization and incorporation of America, with all that accompanied those trends; …
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(b. 1871–d. 1945) American novelist We are to have no pictures which the Puritan and the narrow, animated by an obsolete dogma, cannot approve of. We are to have no theatres, no motion pictures. No books, no public exhibitions of any kind, no speech even which will in any way contravene his limited…
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Full text Article DREISER, THEODORE

From The Reader's Companion to American History
(1871-1945), author. Dreiser was the foremost American literary naturalist and author of two of the most significant works of early-twentieth-century American fiction, Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). He was raised in a large and poor Catholic family (his father was German-born) …
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Full text Article Dreiser, Theodore (Herman Albert)

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born Aug. 27, 1871, Terre Haute, Ind., U.S.—died Dec. 28, 1945, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. novelist. Born to poor German immigrant parents, Dreiser left home at age 15 for Chicago. He worked as a journalist, and in 1894 he moved to New York, where he had a successful career as a magazine editor and…
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Full text Article Dreiser, Theodore

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(drī'sӘr, –zӘr), 1871–1945, American novelist, b. Terre Haute, Ind. A pioneer of naturalism in American literature, Dreiser wrote novels reflecting his mechanistic view of life, a concept that held humanity as the victim of such ungovernable forces as economics, biology, society, and even chance. In…
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Full text Article Dreiser, Theodore Herman Albert

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1871-1945 US novelist Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to a German immigrant father, he was brought up on the breadline and left home at the age of 15 for Chicago. He did odd jobs before becoming a successful journalist, and wrote Sister Carrie (1900), a powerful and frank treatment of a young working…
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