Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser's best known novels include Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy . Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Sarah and John Paul Dreiser, a strict Catholic family. John Paul Dreiser was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Eifel region, and Sarah was from the Mennonite... farming community near Dayton, Ohio; she was disowned for marrying John and converting to Roman Catholicism. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children . The popular songwriter Paul Dresser was his older brother. After graduating from high school in Warsaw, IN, Theodore attended Indiana University in the years 1889-1890 before dropping out.. Within several years, he was writing for the Chicago Globe newspaper and then the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
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