Theodore Dreiser Recalled ed. by Donald Pizer (review)

This collection edited by the eminent scholar Donald Pizer includes reminiscences of Dreiser by literary figures, critics, editors, journalists, and quite a few lovers. Most selections are excerpted from published works but Pizer also includes several previously unpublished gems. One of them, Doubleday Page lawyer Thomas H. McKee's corrective account of what the novelist misleadingly termed the "suppression" of Sister Carrie, should be required reading for anyone interested in Dreiser.

The volume is divided into two parts, each with multiple sections. Part 1 ("Personal Life") includes "Portraits of Dreiser," "Relations with Women," "Homes," and "Final Years." Part 2 ("Career and Beliefs") contains "Social and Political Activism," "Magazine Editor," "The Craft of Writing," "Literary Friendships," and "Relations with Publishers and Movie Producers." A particular strength of the volume is the attention to the vexed matter of Dreiser's "Relations with Women"—and all the more so because Pizer does not confine the recollections of women who knew Dreiser well to that section alone. Because excerpts from Dreiser's second wife Helen's My Life with Dreiser and recollections from collaborator (as well as lover) Marguerite Tjader and assistant (and also lover) Clara Clark Jaeger appear in multiple sections, the volume signals the significance of women to Dreiser in many ways beyond the amorous.

The tendency of entries to overspill their headings is inevitable in this sort of collection but also draws attention to a rather arbitrary quality in the volume's organization. Various entries grouped under "Portraits of Dreiser," "Literary Friendships," and "The Craft of Writing," for instance, might just as well have been swapped into any of these headings. Other headings do not really capture their contents, particularly "Social and Political Activism." The topic is crucial for understanding Dreiser, but the entries Pizer has chosen—including Ruth E. Kennell's account of Dreiser's grousing at conditions in Russia during their 1927 trip and Hutchins Hapgood's justifiable outrage at Dreiser's anti-semitism—important as these incidents are, do not actually showcase activism. Particularly because the section begins quite late (1927), "Social and Political Activism" might lead a reader to conclude that Dreiser's activist credentials were much thinner than the facts warrant.

While a chronological rather than thematic organization would present problems of its own, ultimately it might have been more useful. For one thing, a chronological format would allow for sequential, and therefore cumulative, headnotes which might usefully include the biographical material on figures presently located at the end of the volume. A consecutive presentation would eliminate the disorienting experience of reading about aftershocks of a particular event before reading about the event itself and unscramble the chronology. For instance, the actress (and Dreiser's longtime lover) Kirah Markham's description of Dreiser's disintegration after the publication of his late novel An American Tragedy (1925) appears before the first mention of efforts to suppress the mid-career The "Genius" (1915).

To clarify, these misgivings speak to how the book is organized, not to its contents, which are splendid. The book is actually riveting reading because the continually changing perspectives on Dreiser from different subject positions convey a dynamic and complex personality. No hagiographer, Pizer unflinchingly includes deeply unflattering, even offensive portraits, such as Yvette Szekely Eastman's graphic account of losing her virginity, at age seventeen, to a man in her words "old enough to be someone's grandfather," and H. L. Mencken's memory of his long-time friend's indifference to the dying of Mencken's mother. But Dreiser's more endearing qualities, particularly his compassion, are also registered strongly. And there is something oddly mesmerizing, as well as humanizing, in reading untold descriptions of Dreiser's signature folding and unfolding of his handkerchief. Theodore Dreiser Recalled is best read in book reviewer fashion, cover to cover.