From Publishers Weekly
Dreiser (1871–1945), author of two of the most famous American novels in the naturalist school, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, rose from poverty to the top of the literary world, crossing paths with prostitutes and thugs (some of them his own siblings) as well as social reformers and presidents, all of whom informed the seemingly amoral universe of his fiction. It's easy to see why a biographer would be attracted to such rich subject matter. But Loving, biographer of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, has specific goals, which do not include painting a psychologically probing portrait of his subject (although one parenthetical aside suggests that Dreiser may have suffered from bipolar disorder—an intriguing and possibly groundbreaking idea that is dropped immediately). Instead, he races through the details of Dreiser's life in order to find the true antecedents and literary context of Dreiser's work. To do so, Loving turns to that work—whether books or magazine articles—for source material. While this account does the reader the favor of collecting all that material in one place and draws a thorough time line of Dreiser's life, it adds little to our knowledge of a major American writer. 47 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Book Description
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.


From the Back Cover
"Jerome Loving is a major American biographer, and he has taken up the life of a central literary figure in The Last Titan. It is the best biographical study of Dreiser that has yet been written. Loving has an experienced hand, and he seems to know exactly where to go in the life, how to make the life available to the reader, and how to make one at least believe that this is how the great novels--Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy--and the other fascinating works by Dreiser got written. Loving obviously knows everything there is to know about Dreiser, and he has made an elegant selection here, fashioning a life of the author that has all the narrative momentum of a novel."--Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life
"Jerome Loving has produced an immensely readable, lively, detailed account of Theodore Dreiser's life, always with one eye on Dreiser's great books. This is vivid biography, bringing the man very much to life. The streets, the newsrooms, the rented rooms, the yearning of the young Dreiser for money, fame, women, good things in life, keeps reminding the reader of Dreiser's own Carrie and Clyde."--Robert D. Richardson, Jr., author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire
"Jerome Loving has a real gift for biography: he has the ability to draw both the big and the small picture and to bring them into mutual focus. While the major events in Dreiser's life are known, Loving brings an assortment of new details and intelligent conjecture to this compelling story. This will be the prevailing version of Dreiser's life."--Richard Lehan, author of The City in Literature: An Intellectual and Cultural History, and editor of Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men


About the Author
Jerome Loving, Distinguished Professor of English at Texas A&M University, is author of Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself (California, 1999), Lost in the Customhouse: Authorship in the American Renaissance (1993), and Emily Dickinson: The Poet on the Second Story (1986), among other books. He is editor of Frank Norris's McTeague (1995), Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1990), and Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (1975).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"This critical biography, the first on Theodore 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 an 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 to Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and especially Whitman, Loving adds a dimension to the writer's thought that has not been fully explored, and reshapes our understanding of his tremendous contribution to American literature in what will surely become the standard biography of one of America's best novelists.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Dreiser (1871-1945), author of two of the most famous American novels in the naturalist school, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, rose from poverty to the top of the literary world, crossing paths with prostitutes and thugs (some of them his own siblings) as well as social reformers and presidents, all of whom informed the seemingly amoral universe of his fiction. It's easy to see why a biographer would be attracted to such rich subject matter. But Loving, biographer of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, has specific goals, which do not include painting a psychologically probing portrait of his subject (although one parenthetical aside suggests that Dreiser may have suffered from bipolar disorder-an intriguing and possibly groundbreaking idea that is dropped immediately). Instead, he races through the details of Dreiser's life in order to find the true antecedents and literary context of Dreiser's work. To do so, Loving turns to that work-whether books or magazine articles-for source material. While this account does the reader the favor of collecting all that material in one place and draws a thorough time line of Dreiser's life, it adds little to our knowledge of a major American writer. 47 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Largely passed over in today's academic surveys of American literature as the unread author of the naturalistic novel Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925), Theodore Dreiser deserves this richly detailed and forthright new biography. This is the first treatment of his life since W.A. Swanberg's biography nearly half a century ago. Loving (Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself) has crafted a readable and lively biography that will undoubtedly revive interest in this major pioneering force in American letters, who stands tall beside Emerson and Whitman for helping to throw off the Victorian chains that bound the early 20th century. Loving concentrates on the years between the world wars, exhaustively investigating aspects of Dreiser's private life that clearly influenced his fiction. For instance, in a truly illuminating section, Loving shows how the misadventures of young Dreiser's sisters and brothers furnish the plot and characters of his first novel, Sister Carrie. He shows, too, how Dreiser's abiding human sympathies and pity soften the otherwise coldly objective storytelling. This study belongs in every library that claims an interest in modern American literature.-Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews