Dreiser on the Web

by Roger W. Smith

1. Web Sites Dedicated to Dreiser

DreiserWebSource. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia, PA.

 http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/dreiser/ .

This superbly-designed, user-friendly site contains a wealth of material:

• A Register for the Theodore Dreiser Papers, compiled by Julie A. Reahard and Lee Ann Draud. This inventory of the contents of the library’s Dreiser collection is well organized and detailed. One can browse the contents of the collection either sequentially, by means of a Container List (box by box, sequentially) or topically by broad subject categories (e.g., Correspondence, TD Writings, Legal Matters, TD Diaries, Biographical Material, etc.).

• A facsimile of the 1900 typescript of Sister Carrie (the one revised by Dreiser, his wife Sara, and his friend Arthur Henry).

• Both a facsimile and searchable text of the first edition of Sister Carrie published by Doubleday, Page & Co. in 1900.

• Searchable text of the Pennsylvania edition (1981) of Sister Carrie.

• Essays about the contexts and texts of Sister Carrie by Clare Eby and James L. W. West III.

• Essays on Dreiser’s reputation and life by Donald Pizer and Thomas P. Riggio. The Riggio biography is the best and most complete Dreiser biography available on the web.

• Roark Mulligan’s groundbreaking article “Dreiser’s Private Library” (originally published in Dreiser Studies 33.2 [2002]), which contains a complete listing of the books in Dreiser’s private library.

• “Sister Carrie: ‘A Strangely Strong Novel in a Queer Milieu,’ ” a virtual exhibition created by Nancy M. Shawcross, curator of manuscripts at the Penn Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The virtual exhibition’s contents include essays on the composition and publication of Sister Carrie and the role played by figures such as Dreiser’s sister Emma, his brother Paul, his wife Sara, and his friend Arthur Henry.

• Dreiser correspondence files, maintained by the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (SCETI) at the University of Pennsylvania. By clicking on links, one can view facsimiles of letters to, from, and about Dreiser. An enormous amount of correspondence is included. The letters are indexed alphabetically by name of correspondent. The user also has the option of searching for correspondence by name of correspondent or a date range.

• An extensive collection of photographs and a film clip. The photographs are from the library’s Theodore Dreiser Papers and W. A. Swanberg Papers. Photos available on line range in date from 1894 to 1945. Included are photographs from albums compiled by Dreiser’s second wife, Helen. There is also a downloadable silent film clip of Dreiser and Harriet Bissell at Dreiser’s residence Iroki, in Mt. Kisco, NY, made by Robert Elias in May 1938.

• An online version of Theodore Dreiser: A Primary Bibliography and Reference Guide, ed. Donald Pizer, Richard W. Dowell, and Frederic E. Rusch (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991).

International Theodore Dreiser Society. 

http://www.uncw.edu/dreiser/ . The site contains:

• Tables of contents for issues of Dreiser Studies from the present back to spring 1997 (vol. 28 no. 1).

• An index to Dreiser Studies (and its predecessor, The Dreiser Newsletter) from vols. 1 through 30 (1970–1999).

• A Dreiser Checklist, the annual series of supplements to Theodore Dreiser: A Primary Bibliography and Reference Guide. Available on line are:

• 1990 Bibliography from Dreiser Studies 23.2 (1992)

• 1991 Bibliography from Dreiser Studies 30.2 (1999)

• 1992 Bibliography from Dreiser Studies 31:1 (2000)

• 1993–1997 Bibliography from Dreiser Studies 31:2 (2000)