Guide to the Theodore Dreiser Collection,
1897-1983

American author of the naturalist school, who began as a journalist and was also active in support of communism.

Consists mainly of letters by, to, or about Theodore Dreiser, as well as printed material, photographs, interviews and speeches of Dreiser, research notes of Dreiser scholar Robert Elias, clippings, microfilms, 1 audio tape, and 2 vols. of bound manuscripts. Includes copies of Dreiser's extensive correspondence with H.L. Mencken, and originals of many letters from Mencken to Elias; printed articles and stories which Dreiser published in The Bookman, Daily Worker, The Delineator, Famous Stories, Forum, The New York Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Pravda, Tass, and Vanity Fair, including articles in support of communism and organized labor; manuscripts of Dreiser's works The Bulwark and My Creator, and the outline of a play, Revolt; correspondence and clippings concerning the suppression of Dreiser's novel The Genius under censorship pressure from the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice; and correspondence (mainly typed copies of letters) with other writers. Includes phonograph records, and a short film of Dreiser in Westchester County, 1938.

Correspondents include Sherwood Anderson, Argus Book Shop, Louise Campbell, Sergei Dinamov, George Douglas, Helen Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Charles Fort, Frank Harris, Arthur Garfield Hays, Maude Wood Henry, Harold Hersey, John Huth, Alfred A. Knopf, William C. Lengel, Donald P. McCord, Esther McCoy, H.L. Mencken, Albert Mordell, George Jean Nathan, Grant Richards, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Simon & Schuster, Upton Sinclair, Thelma Cudlipp Whitman, and Huan Wilson.

Printed material by Dreiser, printed material by other writers, and Dreiser's letters to others arranged in chronological order; letters and manuscripts by others arranged alphabetically by author; letters received by Elias arranged in chronological order.