Theodore Dreiser's Library of American Realism
While doing his research on an excellent article on David Markson's "lost" personal library, my friend Craig Fehrman sent me a copy of a 2002 essay on Theodore Dreiser's own private library, or rather, on one special part of his personal book collection which he curated as a "Library of American Realism." The article is by Roark Mulligan and is in fact available [yay, open source!] here.
There is an appendix to the article which itemizes all the known inclusions in Dreiser's "Library of American Realism." It's a fascinating document not only for what it tells us about Dreiser's reading (I'm noticing a heavy Midwestern contingent in here, although perhaps that's just because I'm looking for it) but also for what it tells us about a sort of culture of naturalism: the division between fiction and non-fiction is very fluid here, and one can see much further down into the second and third tiers of naturalist or realist authors, producing a better understanding that these aesthetics were built much more on quantity of than on the quality of a few exceptional novelists (Norris, Crane, Dreiser himself, et al.).
I've made a quick pass over it to mark it up with some of the easier links to Wikipedia and such; I'll update it over time to include more links to other resources as I find them.
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. (1907)
Adams, Samuel H[opkins]. Revelry. (1926)
Ade, George. Fables in Slang. (1899)
Anderson, Sherwood. Dark Laughter. (1925)
Anonymous. My Actor-Husband. (1912)
Bercovici, Konrad. Crimes of Charity. (1917)
Black, Jack. You Can’t Win. (1926)
Bronson-Howard, George. Selected stories. [no specific title listed]
Boyce, Neith. The Eternal Spring. (1906)
Boyd, Thomas. Through the Wheat. (1923)
Bullen, Frank. Cruise of the Cachalot. (1899)
Bullitt, William. It’s Not Done. (1928)
Canfield, C. L. The Diary of a Forty-Niner. (1920)
Carlisle, Helen Grace. Mother’s Cry. (1930)
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. (1919)
Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky. (1917)
Chambers, Robert W. The King in Yellow. (1895)
Cohen, Lester. Sweepings. (1926)
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. (1895)
Croy, Homer. West of the Water Tower. (1923)
Dahlberg, Edward. Bottom Dogs. (1930)
Davenport, Homer. [no specific title listed]
Dell, Floyd. Moon-Calf. (1920)
Dos Passos, John. Manhattan Transfer. (1925)
Edwards, Albert. A Man’s World. (1912)
Faulkner, William. Sanctuary. (1932)
Ferber, Edna. Girls. (1921)
Fergusson, Harvey. Capitol Hill. (1923)
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key. The Beautiful and Damned. (1922)
Flagg, Jared. The Crimes of Jared Flagg. (1920)
Ford, Paul Leicester. The Honorable Peter Sterling. (1894)
Fort, Charles. The Outcast Manufacturers. (1909)
Frederic, Harold. The Damnation of Theron Ware. (1896)
Frederick, John T. Druida. (1923)
Friedman, Isaac Kahn. By Bread Alone, A Novel. (1901)
Fuller, Henry B[lake]. With the Procession. (1895)
Gale, Zona. Miss Lulu Bett. (1920)
Garland, Hamlin. Main-Travelled Roads. (1916)
Glasgow, Ellen. Barren Ground. (1925)
———. The Romantic Comedians. (1926)
Goodman, Daniel Carson. Hagar Revelly. (1913)
Graham, Carroll, and Garret Graham. Queer People. (1930)
Granberry, Edwin. Strangers and Lovers. (1928)
Grant, Robert. Unleavened Bread. (1900)
Green, Helen. At the Actors’ Boarding House and Other Stories. (1906)
Hapgood, Hutchins. The Autobiography of a Thief. (1903)
———. The Story of a Lover. (1919)
Hecht, Ben. Erik Dorn. Introduction by Burton Rascoe. (1924)
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. (1929)
Henry, O. The Best of O. Henry. (1929)
Hergesheimer, Joseph. The Lay Anthony. (1919)
Herrick, Robert. Together. (1908)
Heyward, Du Bose. Porgy. (1925)
Hobart, Alice Tisdale. Oil for the Lamps of China. (1933)
Holding, Elisabeth. Invincible Minnie. (1920)
Howe, Edgar Watson. The Story of a Country Town. Introduction by Carl Van Doren. (1926)
Howells, W. D. Their Wedding Journey. (1894)
Hughes, Langston. Not without Laughter. (1930)
Hull, Helen Rose. Islanders. (1927)
Huntington, Elizabeth. Son of Dr. Tradusac. (1929)
Ireland, Alleyne. Joseph Pulitzer. (1914)
James, Henry. The American. (1879)
———. Roderick Hudson. (1875)
Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs. (1896)
Johnson, Josephine. Now in November. (1934)
Kantor, MacKinlay. Diversey. (1928)
Kelley, Edith. Weeds. (1923)
Kelley, Ethel. Heart’s Blood. (1923)
Kelly, Myra. Little Citizens. (1904)
Kemp, Harry. Tramping on Life. (1922)
Lewis, Sinclair. Main Street. (1920)
Lewisohn, Ludwig. The Island Within. (1928)
Loos, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (1925)
Lowrie, Donald. My Life in Prison. (1912)
Lyon, Harris Merton. Sardonics: Sixteen Sketches. (1908)
Marks, Henry K. Undertow. (1923)
Masters, Edgar Lee. Mirage. (1924)
Matson, Norman H. Day of Fortune. (1928)
Melville, Herman. Typee, A Real Romance of the South Sea. (1892)
Munger, Dell H. The Wind Before Dawn. (1912)
Neumann, Robert. Flood. Trans. William A. Drake. (1930)
Norris, Frank. McTeague. (1899)
Oliver, John Rathbone. Victim and Victor. (1928)
Ornitz, Samuel Badisch. Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl: An Anonymous Autobiography. (1923)
Ostenso, Martha. Wild Geese. (1925)
Payne, Will. The Story of Eva. (1901)
Peterkin, Julia. Black April. (1927)
Phillips, David G[raham]. Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise. (1920)
Post, Melville D. The Man of Last Resort. (1892)
Rumsey, Frances. Mr. Cushing and Mlle. De Chastel. (1917)
Sachs, Ermanie. Red Damask. (1927)
Sandburg, Carl. Smoke and Steel. (1920)
Scott, Evelyn. The Narrow House. (1921)
Sinclair, Upton. Oil! (1927)
Smits, Lee. Spring Flight. (1925)
Steele, Robert. One Man. (1915)
Stein, Gertrude. Three Lives. (1915)
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. (1937)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Dred. (1856)
Stribling, Thomas S. The Forge. (1933)
Suckow, Ruth. Farm stories. [no specific title listed]
Sullivan, Edward. Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime. (1929)
Sweeney, Ed. Poorhouse Sweeney. Foreword by Theodore Dreiser. (1927)
Tarkington, Booth. Penrod (1914) or Seventeen (1916).
Train, Arthur. The “Goldfish.” (1915)
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. (1884)
Van Vechten, Carl. Parties, Scenes from Contemporary New York Life. (1930)
Vance, Joseph Lewis [sic - Louis Joseph Vance]. Joan Thursday. (1913)
Vandercook, John. Black Majesty, The Life of Christophe King of Haiti. (1930) [review]
Westcott, Glenway. The Grandmothers. (1927)
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. (1920)
———. The Custom of the Country. (1913)
Wharton, James. Squad. (1928) [review]
White, Hervey. Quicksand. (1900)
Whitlock, Brand. The Turn of the Balance. (1907) [a sort of muckraking novel about capital punishment]
Whitman, Stephen. Predestined. (1910)
Willard, Josiah. Tramping with Tramps. (1899)
Williams, Fred Quick Benton [pseud. for Herbert Elliot Hamblen and William Stone Booth]. On Many Seas: The Life and Exploits of a Yankee Sailor. (1897)
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward Angel. (1929)
Wood, Eugene. Back Home. (1905)
There is an appendix to the article which itemizes all the known inclusions in Dreiser's "Library of American Realism." It's a fascinating document not only for what it tells us about Dreiser's reading (I'm noticing a heavy Midwestern contingent in here, although perhaps that's just because I'm looking for it) but also for what it tells us about a sort of culture of naturalism: the division between fiction and non-fiction is very fluid here, and one can see much further down into the second and third tiers of naturalist or realist authors, producing a better understanding that these aesthetics were built much more on quantity of than on the quality of a few exceptional novelists (Norris, Crane, Dreiser himself, et al.).
I've made a quick pass over it to mark it up with some of the easier links to Wikipedia and such; I'll update it over time to include more links to other resources as I find them.
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. (1907)
Adams, Samuel H[opkins]. Revelry. (1926)
Ade, George. Fables in Slang. (1899)
Anderson, Sherwood. Dark Laughter. (1925)
Anonymous. My Actor-Husband. (1912)
Bercovici, Konrad. Crimes of Charity. (1917)
Black, Jack. You Can’t Win. (1926)
Bronson-Howard, George. Selected stories. [no specific title listed]
Boyce, Neith. The Eternal Spring. (1906)
Boyd, Thomas. Through the Wheat. (1923)
Bullen, Frank. Cruise of the Cachalot. (1899)
Bullitt, William. It’s Not Done. (1928)
Canfield, C. L. The Diary of a Forty-Niner. (1920)
Carlisle, Helen Grace. Mother’s Cry. (1930)
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. (1919)
Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky. (1917)
Chambers, Robert W. The King in Yellow. (1895)
Cohen, Lester. Sweepings. (1926)
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. (1895)
Croy, Homer. West of the Water Tower. (1923)
Dahlberg, Edward. Bottom Dogs. (1930)
Davenport, Homer. [no specific title listed]
Dell, Floyd. Moon-Calf. (1920)
Dos Passos, John. Manhattan Transfer. (1925)
Edwards, Albert. A Man’s World. (1912)
Faulkner, William. Sanctuary. (1932)
Ferber, Edna. Girls. (1921)
Fergusson, Harvey. Capitol Hill. (1923)
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key. The Beautiful and Damned. (1922)
Flagg, Jared. The Crimes of Jared Flagg. (1920)
Ford, Paul Leicester. The Honorable Peter Sterling. (1894)
Fort, Charles. The Outcast Manufacturers. (1909)
Frederic, Harold. The Damnation of Theron Ware. (1896)
Frederick, John T. Druida. (1923)
Friedman, Isaac Kahn. By Bread Alone, A Novel. (1901)
Fuller, Henry B[lake]. With the Procession. (1895)
Gale, Zona. Miss Lulu Bett. (1920)
Garland, Hamlin. Main-Travelled Roads. (1916)
Glasgow, Ellen. Barren Ground. (1925)
———. The Romantic Comedians. (1926)
Goodman, Daniel Carson. Hagar Revelly. (1913)
Graham, Carroll, and Garret Graham. Queer People. (1930)
Granberry, Edwin. Strangers and Lovers. (1928)
Grant, Robert. Unleavened Bread. (1900)
Green, Helen. At the Actors’ Boarding House and Other Stories. (1906)
Hapgood, Hutchins. The Autobiography of a Thief. (1903)
———. The Story of a Lover. (1919)
Hecht, Ben. Erik Dorn. Introduction by Burton Rascoe. (1924)
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. (1929)
Henry, O. The Best of O. Henry. (1929)
Hergesheimer, Joseph. The Lay Anthony. (1919)
Herrick, Robert. Together. (1908)
Heyward, Du Bose. Porgy. (1925)
Hobart, Alice Tisdale. Oil for the Lamps of China. (1933)
Holding, Elisabeth. Invincible Minnie. (1920)
Howe, Edgar Watson. The Story of a Country Town. Introduction by Carl Van Doren. (1926)
Howells, W. D. Their Wedding Journey. (1894)
Hughes, Langston. Not without Laughter. (1930)
Hull, Helen Rose. Islanders. (1927)
Huntington, Elizabeth. Son of Dr. Tradusac. (1929)
Ireland, Alleyne. Joseph Pulitzer. (1914)
James, Henry. The American. (1879)
———. Roderick Hudson. (1875)
Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs. (1896)
Johnson, Josephine. Now in November. (1934)
Kantor, MacKinlay. Diversey. (1928)
Kelley, Edith. Weeds. (1923)
Kelley, Ethel. Heart’s Blood. (1923)
Kelly, Myra. Little Citizens. (1904)
Kemp, Harry. Tramping on Life. (1922)
Lewis, Sinclair. Main Street. (1920)
Lewisohn, Ludwig. The Island Within. (1928)
Loos, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (1925)
Lowrie, Donald. My Life in Prison. (1912)
Lyon, Harris Merton. Sardonics: Sixteen Sketches. (1908)
Marks, Henry K. Undertow. (1923)
Masters, Edgar Lee. Mirage. (1924)
Matson, Norman H. Day of Fortune. (1928)
Melville, Herman. Typee, A Real Romance of the South Sea. (1892)
Munger, Dell H. The Wind Before Dawn. (1912)
Neumann, Robert. Flood. Trans. William A. Drake. (1930)
Norris, Frank. McTeague. (1899)
Oliver, John Rathbone. Victim and Victor. (1928)
Ornitz, Samuel Badisch. Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl: An Anonymous Autobiography. (1923)
Ostenso, Martha. Wild Geese. (1925)
Payne, Will. The Story of Eva. (1901)
Peterkin, Julia. Black April. (1927)
Phillips, David G[raham]. Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise. (1920)
Post, Melville D. The Man of Last Resort. (1892)
Rumsey, Frances. Mr. Cushing and Mlle. De Chastel. (1917)
Sachs, Ermanie. Red Damask. (1927)
Sandburg, Carl. Smoke and Steel. (1920)
Scott, Evelyn. The Narrow House. (1921)
Sinclair, Upton. Oil! (1927)
Smits, Lee. Spring Flight. (1925)
Steele, Robert. One Man. (1915)
Stein, Gertrude. Three Lives. (1915)
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. (1937)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Dred. (1856)
Stribling, Thomas S. The Forge. (1933)
Suckow, Ruth. Farm stories. [no specific title listed]
Sullivan, Edward. Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime. (1929)
Sweeney, Ed. Poorhouse Sweeney. Foreword by Theodore Dreiser. (1927)
Tarkington, Booth. Penrod (1914) or Seventeen (1916).
Train, Arthur. The “Goldfish.” (1915)
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. (1884)
Van Vechten, Carl. Parties, Scenes from Contemporary New York Life. (1930)
Vance, Joseph Lewis [sic - Louis Joseph Vance]. Joan Thursday. (1913)
Vandercook, John. Black Majesty, The Life of Christophe King of Haiti. (1930) [review]
Westcott, Glenway. The Grandmothers. (1927)
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. (1920)
———. The Custom of the Country. (1913)
Wharton, James. Squad. (1928) [review]
White, Hervey. Quicksand. (1900)
Whitlock, Brand. The Turn of the Balance. (1907) [a sort of muckraking novel about capital punishment]
Whitman, Stephen. Predestined. (1910)
Willard, Josiah. Tramping with Tramps. (1899)
Williams, Fred Quick Benton [pseud. for Herbert Elliot Hamblen and William Stone Booth]. On Many Seas: The Life and Exploits of a Yankee Sailor. (1897)
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward Angel. (1929)
Wood, Eugene. Back Home. (1905)
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