The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520234819)

When Theodore Dreiser first published Sister Carrie in 1900 it was suppressed for its seamy plot, colloquial language, and immorality--for, as one reviewer put it, its depiction of "the godless side of American life." It was a side of life experienced firsthand by Dreiser, whose own circumstances often paralleled those of his characters in the turbulent, turn-of-the-century era of immigrants, black lynchings, ruthless industrialists, violent labor movements, and the New Woman. This masterful critical biography, the first on Dreiser in more than half a century, is the only study to fully weave Dreiser's literary achievement into the context of his life. Jerome Loving gives us a Dreiser for a new generation in a brilliant evocation of a writer who boldly swept away Victorian timidity to open the twentieth century in American literature.

Dreiser was a controversial figure in his time, not only because of his literary efforts, which included publication of the brutal and heartbreaking An American Tragedy in 1925, but also because of his personal life, which featured numerous sexual liaisons, included membership in the communist party, merited a 180-page FBI file, and ended in Hollywood. The Last Titan paints a full portrait of the mature Dreiser between the two world wars--through the roaring twenties, the stock market crash, and the Depression--and describes his contact with important figures from Emma Goldman and H.L. Mencken to two presidents Roosevelt. Tracing Dreiser's literary roots in Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and especially Whitman, Loving has written what will surely become the standard biography of one of America's best novelists.

Author: Jerome Loving
ISBN-10: 0520234812
ISBN-13: 9780520234819
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 03/01/2005
Pages: 528
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.50lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.70d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2005 pg. 1822
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2004 pg. 1186
Library Journal 02/01/2005 pg. 80
Publishers Weekly 02/21/2005 pg. 171
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2006 pg. 1 - Strongly Recommended