Theodore Dreiser

From Philosopedia

Dreiser, Theodore (17 August 1871 - 28 December 1945)

Dreiser, born into a strict Catholic German-American family in Terre Haute, Indiana, became known as an author whose literary naturalism described life's harshness in nitty-gritty detail.

After flunking out of Indiana University, he worked for the Chicago Globe, then the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In 1892 he married Sara White and, although they separated in 1909, the two never formally divorced.

When Sister Carrie (1900) was published, readers were shocked by Dreiser’s descriptions of the characters’ irreligion and illicit sexual behavior, this despite the fact that his publisher had already expunged 40,000 words from the original manuscript.

An American Tragedy (1925) similarly describes false piety, questions matters of free will, and shows greedy capitalists perverting Christian ideals. As described by William F. Ryan,

• Dreiser’s attitudes metamorphosed within American socialism, and he joined the Communist party late in life. But there is no evidence that he was an atheist. He scorned Catholicism and the Protestant churches, claiming in his autobiographical writings—among them, Dawn (1931) - that those orthodox churches had perverted Christianity with political concerns and the pursuit of material wealth. Dreiser called for a "pure religion and undefiled," one grounded in good works and human compassion.

Literary critic Irving Howe described Dreiser as

• among the American giants, one of the very few American giants we have had.

His freethinking and hostility to organized religion is evident in his statements,

• All forms of dogmatic religion should go. The world did without them in the past and can do so again.

• Assure a man that he has a soul and then frighten him with old wives’ tales as to what is to become of him afterwards, and you have hooked a fish, a mental slave.

Upton Sinclair's naturalism depicted a fictional infidel that some speculated was based on Dreiser, who reportedly was not happy about all this.

H. L. Mencken wrote to Will Durant (January 9, 1946) asking for details about the Dreiser funeral:

• If you ever feel like it, I wish you would send me a more or less particular account of the Dreiser funeral. I'd like to know, for example, what sort of religious service, if any, was held, and where the poor old boy is buried. You speak of the ceremony as "weary," so I assume that some gentleman of God had a hand in it. Were there any speeches? My apologies for bothering you, but I am curious to know more about the last act in what to me was an almost lifelong drama.

Durant responded with a "Dear Mencken" (January 21, 1946):

• Your letter of the 9th has just reached me here in Spokane, where I am peddling philosophy.

• I knew Dreiser only in the last two years of his life. He lived in comfort, and usually, so far as I could see, in good spirits. His new wife took fond care of him; he had many friends; and his childlike faith in Russia as the realization of the brotherhood of man held him up in the face of the imperfections of our life. I had him in my home on several occasions, and found him a friendly old bear, whose gruff ways never succeeded in concealing his almost sentimental tenderness.

• He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Los Angeles, on the afternoon of January third, after services in the Chapel of the Recession there. The body had lain in state that morning, but no attempt had been made to secure a procession of sightseers. Some 200 persons attended, and some fifty of those followed him to the grave. The services were conducted by a Rev. Hunter, a Congregational minister and friend of the Dreisers. He introduced John Howard Lawson, also a friend of Dreiser's, who spoke with a quiet eloquence for some thirty minutes, chiefly in praise of Dreiser's recent enlistment in the Communist Party. He was followed by Charles Chaplin, who read with his usual skill the poem "Drums" from Dreiser's book called Moods. Then the clergyman spoke for perhaps half an hour; not theologically, but chiefly in reminiscence of Dreiser's career, and ... suggesting with polite vagueness that, after all, Dreiser had been an essentially religious soul, a creative fragment of some Great Spirit.

• The spectators then filed past the coffin. Dreiser looked handsomer in death than in life; his face expressed a repose and an acceptance which his pugnacious idealism had seldom permitted him before. The pallbearers (Dudley Nichols, Chaplin, myself, and five others, whose names have escaped me -- chiefly Dreiser's relatives and friends) carried the coffin to the hearse. Some twenty cars followed this to almost the highest hill in the picturesque cemetery, overlooking many miles of Los Angeles. We carried the body from hearse to grave, and stood aside while the minister read the usual funeral services of the Congregational Church.... As we walked back down the hill the body was lowered into the grave, and the covering earth was completely overlaid with flowers.

• You, who helped him to recognition, should have been the one to pronounce his final eulogy. We missed you keenly.

{CE; CL; EU, William F. Ryan; JM; TRI; TYD}