did Dreiser plagiarize in writing his first novel?

 

 

Salzman, ‘Dreiser and Ade’

 

 

See downloadable PDF file, above.

 

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Professor Jack Salzman has answered this question definitively with a yes. Dreiser did plagiarize — contrary to the assessment of Dreiser biographer W. A. Swanberg — from George Ade (1866–1944), an Indiana born newspaper columnist, humorist, novelist, short story writer, and playwright, in a passage in the opening chapter of Sister Carrie.

See Jack Salzman, “Dreiser and Ade: A Note on the Text of Sister Carrie,” American Literature, vol. 40, no. 4 (January 1969), pp. 544-548 — posted here as a downloaable PDF file.

Thanks to Professor Salzman for permission to post this article.

 

— Roger W. Smith

 

 

See also:

“George Ade Absolves Dreiser”

https://dreiseronlinecom.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/george-ade-absolves-dreiser/

Jack Salzman, “The Curious History of Dreiser’s The Bulwark”

 

 

 

Jack Salzman. “The Curious History of Dreiser’s The Bulwark.” In Proof: The Yearbook of American Bibliographical and Textual Studies. Vol. 3. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1973, pp. 21-61.

 

downloadable PDF file posted below

 

 

Salzman, ‘The Curious History of Dreiser’s The Bulwark’

 

 

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Theodore Dreiser’s The Bulwark — a novel that had a very long gestation and was published posthumously — never seems to have received sufficient scholarly and critical attention. Lawrence E. Hussman, Jr. has called it Dreiser’s “most undervalued” work.

An exception would be the seminal article by Jack Salzman posted here. (See above link.) It is a difficult article to obtain or gain access to.

I wish to thank Professor Salzman and the University of South Carolina Press for permission to post this article.

 

— Roger W. Smith