Theodore Dreiser
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Theodore Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American writer, best known for his debut novel, Sister Carrie (1900), a harsh depiction of American society "overtly antagonistic to capitalism's degrading force."[1]
Dreiser was an atheist[2] as well as a Communist, who wrote that "through its attainment of Socialism," the Soviet Union "has given the greatest example in history of the heights of achievement that can be reached by a free people with faith in itself and in all the progressive forces of humanity."[3] In 1928, he visited the Soviet Union, returning to give the New York Times a glowing account, even defending Stalin's purge of Trotsky.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Katherine Kearns, Nineteenth-Century Literary Realism: Through the Looking-Glass (Cambridge University Press, 1996) ISBN 0521496063, p. 265, n. 23
- ↑ "Religion: Atheist's Oath," Time, August 20, 1928
- ↑ Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," The Daily Worker, July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, Communism in America: A History in Documents (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, pp. 348-350
- ↑ "DREISER HOME, SEES SOVIET AIMS GAINING; Author Thinks Principles of Government Will Spread Even to This Country. BUT IN A DIFFERENT FORM He Declares There Is No Bread-Line or Unemployment in Russia-- Deplores Coal Strike Here," The New York Times, February 22, 1928