Novelist's books still pack message
By Mark Bennett
Sixty years after his death, Theodore Dreiser may soon have a hit on his hands.
The Terre Haute-born author's classic 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy," is the basis for an opera to debut in December at the famed Metropolitan Opera in New York. Composer Tobias Picker and librettist Gene Scheer have boiled Dreiser's long story into what The Met calls "a fast-moving drama," which carries the same name as his book.
Dreiser "is very much in the forefront," says Miriam Gogol, co-founder of the International Theodore Dreiser Society.
In addition to the opera, a community college in the small town of Herkimer, N.Y., is planning a scholarly conference next June to mark the 100th anniversary of the famous trial of Charles Gillette, upon which Dreiser based "An American Tragedy." Gillette was tried in Herkimer in 1906, convicted and executed for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Grace Brown. Dreiser's fictional twist of those events also inspired the movie "A Place in the Sun," starring Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor.
That all may seem like heady stuff for a guy who was born into poverty on South Ninth Street in Terre Haute in 1871. But by the period of 1911 to 1925, Dreiser had become "the great American novelist," says Stephen Brennan, professor of English at Louisiana State University and co-editor of the Dreiser Studies. And the man who exposed long-suppressed ideas is still relevant today, he adds.
"At a time when America is beginning to question some of our materialism and how the rest of the world views our crassness, Dreiser was writing about those very things in 1925," Brennan says.
Indeed, Dreiser, who died in 1945, hasn't been forgotten. As the year 2000 approached, Modern Library placed "An American Tragedy" at No. 16 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. And his first book, "Sister Carrie," ranked 33rd.
Why? After all, his books are so long it's hard to teach them in a classroom setting, explains Gogol, an associate dean at Fairfield University in Connecticut. And, as retired Indiana State University English professor Richard Dowell says, Dreiser "was certainly not what you would call a wordsmith. His dialogue could be laborious." In fact, adds Dowell, some in literary circles joked that Dreiser was "the greatest writer who couldn't write."
But, Dowell quickly points out, Dreiser's books delivered strong social statements.
"He said what many people thought were some powerful things," says Dowell, who edited the Dreiser Newsletter for 20 years. "And his comments on human destiny many would say are right on the mark."
Dreiser embraced a philosophy of naturalism, which says that people have little control over their lives, but fate does. A naturalist believes "there is no such thing as free will," Gogol explains. That agnostic outlook, Dreiser's flirtation with communism, his claim to have assisted his songwriting brother, Paul Dresser, in the writing of "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," and the sexual subplots of his books did not endear Dreiser to his hometown or Indiana. And, in turn, after moving from Indiana to Chicago at age 16, he made only one quiet return while researching his book, "A Hoosier Holiday," in 1915.
But Hoosiers and Hauteans shouldn't make assumptions about this famed author without studying him first, Dowell says.
"People in Terre Haute shouldn't look down on him quite so much as this cold, crass guy who wrote dirty novels all his life," Brennan says. "Underneath, the impulse for beauty, for joy, for pleasure is in all of his characters."
Indeed, Dreiser wrote from a populist outlook. "He really brought working-class people into the mainstream of American literature," Gogol says.
And though Dreiser, who married twice, was known as "a womanizer," Gogol says, he also "advanced working women" with feminist viewpoints in books such as "Sister Carrie."
Reading Dreiser requires some tenacity, given the length of the books. ("An American Tragedy" is 880 pages.) But they pack impact, Dowell adds.
"By today's standards - the TV mentality and instant gratification - you're not going to get that with Dreiser," he says. "You're going to get a slow buildup to what could be a very strong climax. But it may be a long time coming."
Mark Bennett can be reached at 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
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University of Penn Library |
| Big smile: Writer Theordore Dreiser poses for a portrait Nov. 8, 1933. |
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THEODORE DREISER AT A GLANCE
Born: Aug. 27, 1871, Terre Haute.
Family: He was the ninth of 10 surviving children born to John and Sarah Dreiser. He married Sara White in 1898, and later divorced her. In 1944, he married long-time companion Helen Richardson.
Died: Dec. 28, 1945, Hollywood.
Famous works: "Sister Carrie," 1900;, "Jenny Gerhardt," 1911; "The Financier," 1912; "The Titan," 1914; "The Genius," 1915; "An American Tragedy," 1925; "Dawn," 1931; and "The Bulwark," 1946.
Active "Dreiserians": The International Theodore Dreiser Society (founded 1991) includes scholars, teachers and Dreiser enthusiasts (Web site is www.uncwil.edu/dreiser/). Also Dreiser Studies publishes scholarly works about the author.
On stage: Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" is the basis for an opera of the same name, scheduled for eight performances in December at New York City's Metropolitan Opera. Also, that opera will be broadcast on radio on local station WFIU-FM 95.1 at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 24.
Terre Haute tributes: Namesakes in memory of the author include Dreiser Hall on the Indiana State University campus (dedicated in 1966), Theodore Dreiser Memorial Bridge on eastbound U.S. 40 over the Wabash River (opened in 1992), and the Dreiser Square senior housing community at Third Street and Washington Avenue (opened in 1965).
Hall of Famer: Dreiser began his writing career by working in relative anonymity at newspapers in Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toledo, Ohio, Pittsburgh and New York, and also edited several magazines. In 2003, he was inducted posthumously into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.
Controversies: "Sister Carrie" was heavily censored by publisher Doubleday. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice took "The Genius" off bookshelves, sparking a long court battle until it was re-issued in 1923. In 1927, Dreiser accepted an invitation from the government in the Soviet Union to attend the 10th anniversary celebration of its October Revolution. He joined the Communist Party in 1945.
Honors: At his funeral, Charlie Chaplin read Dreiser's poem, "The Road I Came." Of Dreiser, famed writer and friend H.L. Mencken wrote, "American writing before and after his time differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin. He was a man of large originality, of profound feeling and of unshakable courage. All of us who write are better off because he lived, worked and hoped."
Sources: Tribune-Star archives; International Dreiser Society.