short play, “The Girl in the Coffin.” In October, Kirah
Markham arrives and lives intermittently with TD, who
continues to see Sara on the side.
1914
Despite having advertised and begun to print The Titan,
Harpers refuses to publish the novel, claiming it is too
shocking. TD gets John Lane Company, a British firm
with a New York branch, to take on the book, which is
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published in May. In the spring, TD begins a projected
four-volume autobiography; he also works on some short,
experimental plays later published as Plays of the Natural
and Supernatural. By July, he is living in Greenwich
Village, where he will remain for five years, some of the
time living with Kirah Markham.
1915
In August, TD takes automobile trip to Indiana with
Franklin Booth, an illustrator, to collaborate on book that
will become A Hoosier Holiday. In October, The “Genius”
is published by John Lane, and reviews are sharply divided.
1916
Kirah Markham leaves TD.
1916
Citing lewdness and obscenity, the New York Society for
the Suppression of Vice successfully demands that John
Lane withdraw The “Genius” from sale. On the grounds
of artistic freedom, Mencken leads a defense of the novel,
supported by the Authors’ League of America, and gets
458 writers to sign an anti-censorship petition.
1916
In the fall, TD begins a lifelong friendship with Dorothy
Dudley, whose Forgotten Frontiers: Dreiser and the Land
of the Free (1932) will be the first full-length study of the
author.
1916–19
TD lives intermittently with Estelle Bloom Kubitz, whom
he met through Mencken, who was dating Estelle’s sister
Marion Bloom. Estelle works as TD’s secretary.
1916
TD works on The Hand of the Potter, his most ambitious
play. Plays of the Natural and Supernatural is published.
1917
With no royalties coming in on The “Genius” , TD turns
to writing short stories, and works on The Bulwark
and Newspaper Days. He meets Louise Campbell of
Philadelphia, who becomes his long-time literary adviser,
as well as lover.
1917
TD meets Horace Liveright, of Boni and Liveright; TD
agrees to their reissue of Sister Carrie.
1917
Mencken’s essay on TD appears in A Book of Prefaces.
Despite Mencken’s praise for many aspects of Dreiser’s
writing, his criticisms lead to a rift in their friendship.
1918
Boni and Liveright publishes Free and Other Stories. TD
sells articles and stories to Harper’s Monthly and other
periodicals. After the novel has been suppressed for two
years, The “Genius” case comes to court, where it is
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thrown out on a technicality, leaving the novel still
unavailable for sale.
1919
Boni and Liveright publishes Twelve Men, a book of
biographical sketches compiled over twenty years, and The
Hand of the Potter.
1919
TD meets and falls in love with Helen Patges Richardson;
they go to Los Angeles together, where they live for three
years. She pursues acting while TD tries to get his work
filmed and labors intermittently on The Bulwark.
1920
While in California, TD begins focusing on the story
that would become An American Tragedy. Hey
Rub-A-Dub-Dub, a collection of essays, published by Boni
and Liveright.
1921
In December, Provincetown Players produce The Hand of
the Potter.
1922
After completing twenty chapters of An American Tragedy,
TD abandons what seems like a false start. He and Helen
return to New York, taking separate apartments. The
second volume of TD’s autobiography, A Book About
Myself, is published. (Out of respect for family members,
particularly his sisters, TD had withheld publication of the
first volume, Dawn.)
1923
TD tours upstate New York with Helen, researching An
American Tragedy. Boni and Liveright reissue The
“Genius” (unavailable, except for a condensed
serialization published in 1923 in Metropolitan magazine,
since 1916), and publish The Color of a Great City.
1924
In March, Helen goes to the West coast, leaving TD in
New York for several months. She returns in October to
support him during the writing of An American Tragedy, in
which he is assisted by Louise Campbell.
1925
In January, Helen and TD move to Brooklyn so he can
concentrate on finishing the novel.
1925
In December, An American Tragedy is published by
Liveright, to largely glowing reviews (though Mencken
pans it). The novel becomes TD’s only bestseller and
establishes him as one of America’s leading writers. It has
never been out of print.
1926
Horace Liveright produces a Broadway play of An
American Tragedy; TD and Liveright quarrel over fees. In
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June, TD and Helen travel to Europe, gathering material
for The Stoic.
1926
Brief scandal over TD poem plagiarized from Sherwood
Anderson.
1927
Revised and shortened version of The Financier is
published. TD buys 37 acres near Mount Kisco, NY.
TD invited to Russia, all expenses paid by the Soviet
government, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the
Russian Revolution. Chains: Lesser Novels and Stories is
published.
1928
TD writes favorable articles on the Soviet Union for
Vanity Fair and other periodicals. Visits Woods Hole
Biological Laboratory, which instigates his massive project
to formulate a unified scientific philosophy. (The book
would be published posthumously as Notes on Life.) TD
meets Marguerite Tjader Harris. In November, Dreiser
Looks at Russia is published; TD is accused of plagiarizing
The New Russia by Dorothy Thompson (Sinclair Lewis’s
wife), published two months earlier. A volume of poetry,
Moods, Cadenced and Disclaimed, is also published.
1929
TD attends April trial over An American Tragedy,
concerning 1927 suppression in Boston. Clarence Darrow
argues unsuccessfully for the defense.
1929
Despite stock market crash, TD continues building Iroki,
his country home in Mt. Kisco, New York.
1929
A Gallery of Women, a collection of sketches, published.
1930
Sinclair Lewis wins Nobel Prize. He is the first American
author so honored, though many in the literary community
feel that TD, also a finalist, deserved the prize. Lewis
praises TD’s artistic leadership in his acceptance speech.
1930–1
Sergei Eisenstein prepares the film script of An American
Tragedy. It is rejected by Paramount, which favors a
version by Samuel Hoffenstein, to be directed by Josef von
Sternberg. TD receives $55,000 for sound rights but
strongly disapproves of the script, later suing Paramount to
prevent distribution. The film appears in 1931, with some
of the changes TD had demanded.
1931
TD slaps Sinclair Lewis at a party, creating a scandal.
1931
Dawn is published by Liveright, years after its original
composition; critics are amazed by TD’s honesty, but his
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sisters are outraged. A Book About Myself republished,
with the title TD originally wanted, Newspaper Days.
1931
TD writes articles on the arrests of communists, and
supports Scottsboro defendants. Plays a prominent role in
the National Committee for the Defense of Political
Prisoners investigation. Also involved in labor disputes of
miners in Pittsburgh and then Harlan County, Kentucky,
where workers were being prevented from joining a union.
Liveright publishes Tragic America, a critique of
capitalism.
1932
TD expresses interest in joining the Communist Party but
is told his ideology does not conform.
1932
TD receives $25,000 for screen rights to Jennie Gerhardt
(filmed by Paramount in 1933).
1932–3
TD resigns after a year’s involvement with American
Spectator – which also featured Eugene O’Neill and
George Jean Nathan on its editorial board – claiming the
journal was insufficiently engaged with pressing social
issues. Before TD’s departure, readers accuse him and other
editors of publishing anti-Semitic remarks. The charge is
maintained by author Hutchins Hapgood, and TD
becomes embroiled in a public debate. Although he later
retracts words he issued in anger, the charge of
anti-Semitism would continue to haunt him.
1934
Following Liveright’s 1933 death, TD signs with Simon
and Schuster.
1934
Rapprochement with Mencken.
1935
TD refuses to join the National Institute of Arts and
Letters.
1935
Although under contract to complete The Stoic by the
year’s end, TD travels to Los Angeles for assistance with
his philosophical study.
1938
TD represents the League of American Writers in Paris
at a Convention for International Peace, delivering a
well-received speech. Later, he travels to Barcelona, where
he sympathizes with the Spanish people.
1938
TD meets with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
urging that food be sent to Spain.
1938
TD settles permanently in California. He joins Helen,
moving to Glendale, and later to Hollywood.
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1940
TD is contracted by Veritas Press to write a book urging
America to stay out of the war, published in 1941 by
Modern Age Books as America is Worth Saving.
1942
False allegations of TD’s being pro-Nazi make
international headlines.
1942
In October, Sara White Dreiser dies.
1944
TD accepts the Award of Merit from American Academy
of Arts and Letters, which cites his “courage and integrity
in breaking trail as a pioneer in the presentation in fiction
of real human beings and a real America.” In June, he