Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

An American Tragedy - The novel tells a story of a bellboy, Clyde Griffiths, indecisive like Hamlet, who sets out to gain success and fame. After an automobile accident, Clyde is employed by a distant relative, owner of a collar factory. He seduces Roberta Alden, an employee at the factory, but falls in love with Sondra Finchley, a girl of the local aristocracy. Roberta, now pregnant, demands Clyde to marry her. He takes Roberta rowing on an isolated lake and in this dreamlike sequence 'accidentally' murders her. Clyde's trial, conviction, and execution occupy the remainder of the book. Dreiser points out, that materialistic society is as much to blame as the murderer himself. Dreiser based his study on the actual case of Chester Gillette, who murdered Grace Brown - he hit her with a tennis racket and pushed overboard - at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack in July 1906. An American Tragedy was banned in Boston in 1927.For further reading: Theodore Dreiser by B. Rascoe (1926); Forgotten Frontiers: Dreiser and the Land of the Free by D. Dudley (1933); Theodore Dreiser: Apostle of Nature by R.H. Elias (1949); Theodore Dreiser by F.O. Matthiessen (1951); The Stature of Theodore Dreiser, ed. by C. Shapiro and A. Kazin (1955); Theodore Dreiser by P.L. Gerber (1964); Dreiser by W.A. Swanberg (1965); Theodore Dreiser by M. Thader (1965); Theodore Dreiser: His World and His Novels by R. Lehan (1969); Homage to Theodore Dreiser by R.P. Warren (1971); Theodore Dreiser by J. Lundquist (1974); Theodore Dreiser: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography by D. Pizer (1975); The Novels of Theodore Dreiser by D. Pizer (1977); Theodore Dreiser: At the Gates of the City, 1871-1907 by Richard Lingeman (1986); The Gospel of Wealth in the American Novel by Arun Mukherjee (1987); After Eden by Conrad Eugene Ostwalt (1990); Theodore Dreiser: An American Journey 1908-1945 by Richard Lingeman (1991); Dearest Wilding by Yvette Eastmaned, ed. by Thomas P. Riggio (1995); Love That Will Not Let Me Go, ed. by Marguerite Tjader (1998); An American Tragedy by Paul A. Orlov (1998); Dreiser and Veblen Saboteurs of the Status Quo by Clare Virginia Eby (1999); Reading the Sympton by Mohamed Zanyani (1999) - See also: H.L. Mencken

Selected works:

•SISTER CARRIE, 1900 - film 1952, dir. by William Wyler, starring Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones. "A famous satirical novel is softened into an unwieldy narrative with scarcely enough dramatic power to sustain interest despite splendid production values. Heavy pre-release cuts remain obvious, and the general effect is depressing; but it it very good to look at." (Halliwell's Film Guide, 1987)

•JENNIE GERHARDT, 1911 - suom. - film 1933, dir. by Marion Gering, starring Sylvia Sidney, Donald Cook, Mary Astor

•THE FINANCIER, 1912

•THE TITAN, 1914

•THE "GENIUS", 1915

•A HOSIER HOLIDAY, 1916

•PLAYS OF THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL, 1916

•FREE AND OTHER STORIES, 1918

•THE HAND OF THE POTTER, 1918

•TWELVE MEN, 1919

•HEY-RUB-A-DUB-DUB, 1920

•A BOOK ABOUT MYSELF, 1922

•THE COLOUR OF A GREAT CITY, 1923

•AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, 1925 - Amerikkalainen murhenäytelmä - film in 1931, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Phillips Holmes and Sylvi Sidney. "It is the first time, I believe, that the subjects of sex, birth control and murder have been put into a picture with sense, taste and reality." (Pare Lorentz) - A Place in the Sun, 1951, dir. by George Stevens, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor

•MOODS, CADENCED AND DECLAIMED, 1926

•CHAINS, 1927

•DREISER LOOKS AT RUSSIA, 1928

•A GALLERY OF WOMEN, 1929