Preface & Introduction, ‘Selected Poems from Moods,’ ed. Saalbach
Posted here (above) as a downloadable PDF document are the Preface and Introduction by Robert Palmer Saalbach to his edition of Theodore Dreiser’s poetry: Selected Poems (from Moods), with an introduction and notes by Robert Palmer Saalbach (New York: Exposition Press, 1969), pp. 5-23.
“Theodore The Poet”
As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hours
On the shore of the turbid Spoon
With deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish’s burrow,
Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,
First his waving antennae, like straws or hay,
And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,
Gemmed with eyes of jet.
And you wondered in a trance of thought
What he knew, what he desired, and why he lived at all.
But later your vision watched for men and women
Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities,
Looking for the souls of them to come out,
So that you could see
How they lived, and for what,
And why they kept crawling so busily
Along the sandy way where winter fails
As the summer wanes.
— Edgar Les Masters, Spoon River Anthology
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2017
‘Theodore Dreiser’ (editorial) – Wash Post 12-31-1945
attached (above) as downloadable PDF file
“Theodore Dreiser,” Washington Post, December 31, 1945, pg. 8
Theodore Dreiser died on December 28, 1945.
The editorial provides a thoughtful appraisal of Dreiser’s career and of his strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
An important article, viewed from the perspective of Dreiser studies, has just been published. It provides new information about the possible, if not likely, identity of a lover of Theodore Dreiser’s older brother Paul Dresser, the songwriter.
“112-year-old mystery solved? Indiana madam may have inspired famous song”
by Domenica Bongiovanni
The Indianapolis Star
August 3, 2017
*****************************************************
Paul Dresser wrote a popular song, “My Gal Sal,” in 1905, which, with the exception of another one of his songs, “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” is Paul’s best known song and which was a hit in its day. The song is about Paul’s lover, who was said to be the madam of a house of prostitution in Evansville, Indiana.
The article refers to ongoing research that has been pursued doggedly by New York Times Magazine writer John Jeremiah Sullivan and his research assistant Joel Finsel.
In his autobiogaphical work Dawn, Theodore Dreiser identified Sal, Paul’s lover, as Annie Brace, a madam whose working name was Sallie Walker.
Through painstaking sleuthing, Sullivan believes he has discovered the identity of the real Sal.
My thanks to Tamie Dehler for informing me about this article.
— Roger W. Smith
August 3, 2017
Roger W. Smith's Theodore Dreiser site 