Genije

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, August 17, 1871 – Hollywood, California, USA, December 28, 1945), was an American writer and journalist. One of the pioneers of naturalism, his novels mostly deal with the development and moral degeneration of strong and ambitious individuals whose values ​​lie not in their ethical code, but in their perseverance in the face of all obstacles. Dreiser was born into a strictly Catholic family in Terre Haute, Indiana, to parents Sarah and John Paul Dreiser. His father was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Eifel Mountains, while his mother was from the Mnemonic farming community near Dayton, Ohio; she renounced her faith to marry John Paul and convert to Catholicism. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children (nine of ten to survive). The popular composer of popular music of the time, Paul Dresser (1859–1906), was his older brother. Politically, Dreiser was active in several movements against social injustice, such as the lynching of Frank Little, one of the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the deportation of Emma Goldman, and the conviction of union leader Tom Mooney. In November 1931, Dreiser led the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners to the mining region of southeastern Kentucky, where he received testimony from miners from Pineville and Harlan about the violence perpetrated against workers and unions by coal mine managers. Dreiser had a huge influence on the generations that followed him. Alfred Kazin described Dreiser as stronger than anyone else of his era, and at the same time more fierce: bigger than the world he described, but as important as the people in it, while Larzer Ziff noted that Dreiser succeeded more than any of his predecessors or successors in the realization of the great American business novel.