Theodore Dreiser

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871, Theodore Dreiser became one of the major American writers of the naturalist tradition. His work often follows people driven by hunger for success, love, status, or escape, and it treats those struggles with an unusual frankness for its time.

His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), is now considered a landmark of American fiction, even though it had a difficult start when it was first published. He later wrote Jennie Gerhardt, The Financier, The Titan, and An American Tragedy, a hugely influential novel that brought him wide recognition. Alongside his fiction, he also worked as a journalist.

Dreiser died on December 28, 1945, in Hollywood, California. Today he is remembered for bringing a tough, unsentimental realism to American literature and for writing characters who feel flawed, restless, and deeply human.