Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men (Library of America)

Theodore Dreiser was arguably the most important figure in the development of fiction in the twentieth century. In this Library of America volume are presented the first two novels and a little-known collection of biographical sketches by the man about whom H. L. Mencken said, “American writing, before and after his time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin.”

Dreiser grew up poor in a series of small Indiana towns, in a large German Catholic family dominated by hi…