Theodore Dreiser is
one of America’s
greatest writers, and its greatest naturalist writer as well. With the
publication of Sister Carrie in 1900,
Dreiser committed his literary force to opening the new ground of American
naturalism. The general reaction to Dreiser has always been negative. He has
been called a “Crag of basalt”, solemn and ponderous and the world’s worst
great writer, but his influence is evident in the works of Sherwood Anderson,
Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and James T.Farrell, among others. One of
thirteen children, Dreiser was raised in Terre
Haule, Indiana, in
misery and bruising poverty. At fifteen Dreiser fled from home and went to Chicago, where he washed
dishes in a cheap restaurant, clerked in a store, and painted advertising signs.