Theodore Dreiser

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871, Theodore Dreiser grew up in a large family and experienced financial hardship early in life. He worked as a journalist before turning to fiction, and that reporting background shaped the plain, observant style that became one of his trademarks.

His novels often focus on people driven by hunger for success, love, status, or escape, and they are known for treating those desires as part of the social world rather than simple moral lessons. Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925) remain his best-known books, and he is widely associated with American literary naturalism.

Dreiser died in 1945, but his work continued to influence later writers who wanted fiction to face modern life directly, including its inequalities and contradictions. He is remembered as a bold, sometimes controversial writer who expanded what American novels could talk about.