Grace Brown’s and Roberta Alden’s letters

 

letters of Grace Brown and Roberta Alden

 

Please see downloadable Word file posted above.

Roberta Alden and Clyde Griffiths were the two main characters in Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.

An American Tragedy was based on an actual case: the murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906.

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   June 2022

 

****************************************************

Note: I transcribed Grace Brown’s letters from court records. They were presented as exhibits at the trial of Chester Gillette.

I would appreciate being informed of any errors I may have made in transcribing the letters.

“Memories of Dreiser” (Vera Dreiser’s)

 

Paul Vandervoort, ‘Memories of Dreiser’ – Indianapolis Star 10-2-1976

 

Posted here (PDF above):

“Memories of Dreiser”

By Paul Vandervoort

The Indianapolis Star

October 2, 1976

The article focuses on recollections of Dreiser’s niece Vera Dreiser, who had just published a book on Dreiser, My Uncle Theodore.

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

  July 2022

review of Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906 and Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy Revisited

 

review of Brownell and Wawrzaszek, ‘Adirondack Tragedy’ – New York History

 

Posted here (PDF above) is an excellent review of two books on the Gillette murder case:

Adirondack Tragedy; The Gillette Murder Case of 1906, by Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia A. Wawrzaszek

Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy Revisited, by Craig Brandon

reviewed by Katherine E. Compagni

New York History, vol. 68, No. 1 (January 1987), pp. 117-122

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   July 2022

a faux philosopher

 

I have no theories about life, or the solution of economic and political problems. Life, as I see it, is an organized process about which we can do nothing in the final analysis. Of course, science, art, commercial progress, all go to alleviate and improve and ease the material existence of humanity, and that for the great mass, is something. But there is no plan, as I believe, from Christianity down, that can be more than a theory. And dealing with man is a practical thing—not a theoretical one. Nothing can alter his emotions, his primitive and animal reactions to life. Greed, selfishness, vanity, hate, passion, love, are all inherent in the least of us, and until such are eradicated, there can be no Utopia. Each new generation, new century brings new customs, new ideas, new theories, but misery, weakness, incapacities, poverty, side by side with happiness, strength, power, wealth, always have, and no doubt, always will exist. And until that intelligence which runs this show sees fit to remould the nature of man, I think it always will be the survival of the fittest, whether in the monarchies of England, the democracies of America, or the Soviets of Russia.

— Dreiser to Sergei Dinamov, Letters of Theodore Dreiser: A Selection, Volume Two, edited by Robert H. Elias (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959), pg. 449-450

 

This is “vintage” Dreiser qua philosopher. This is “vintage” Dreiser qua philosopher. Prolix, “muddy,” pompous, pseudo profound.

But at least expressing core beliefs that made him a bona fide naturalist. Grounded in Herbert Spencer’s (a great influence on Dreiser) adapting and popularizing of Darwin. “Survival of the fittest” was Spencer’s term..

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

  July 2022