Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser was one of the most influential American authors of his generation, a harbinger of the modernist era that would follow him. Born in Indiana to a German-American farming family of ten, he attended Indiana University for two years before dropping out to work as a journalist. His novels and nonfiction narratives, which he began publishing in his thirties, were controversial for their gritty realism, sexual frankness, and sympathy for the plight of underrepresented people.