GENIUS IN THE RAW - Review of Dreiser Biography (VOL.2 NO.33)

Sep 29, 2026

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Weekly editorial review evaluating W.A. Swanberg’s biography of Theodore Dreiser, assessing its scholarly use of extensive Dreiser collections, correspondence, and interviews. The reviewer acknowledges diligent research, chronological organization, and access to letters and notes, yet criticizes the “behavioristic” method for missing what makes Dreiser distinctive. Core human qualities are argued to be reduced to lists of affairs, business conduct, disputes, tax returns, and transgressions, leaving “Dreiser himself” elusive. The essay proposes that the missing element is Dreiser’s raw genius.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time31 min

AccessFree to download

GENIUS IN THE RAW

Review of Swanberg’s Dreiser Biography

Critique of the Behavioristic Method

The Missing Element: Dreiser’s Genius

VOL.2,NO.33 Published weekly by New York Herald Tribune Inec.,230 West 4Ist St.,New York,NY.,10036.$7.00 per year,foreign countries $8.00. Second class iostage paid at New York,N.Y. GENIUS IN THE RAW It is the one quality of an American titan that eludes his latest biographer By Malcolm Cowley DREISER.By W.A.Swanberg.Iustrated.Scribners.614 pp.$10. Perhaps I should be satisfied with the result of Mr.Swanberg's clearlydiligent and scholarly labors. There is an immense mass of Dreiser material,and the new biographerhas made full use of it.He has studied the great Dreiser collection at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.He has examined the other collections and hasread all the available Dreiser letters.He has profited from the help ofRobert H.Elias,the author of what has been until now the standard life."Dr.Elias,"he says,"not only told me his own Dreiser recollections butgave me the use of his invaluable notes and letters,which appear frequentlyin my text---a generosity,"he rightly adds,"that still astonishes me.” Many others have been of hardly less assistance.As a man of trans-parent honesty,Mr.Swanberg has gained the confidence of Dreiser's sur-viving friends,besides that of his niece,who is the only representative inthe second generation of what had been a family of ten brothers and sisters.He has talked to many of Dreiser's mistresses,who told him enlighteningstories(though some of them asked him to change their names in the book).After collecting enough information to fill a library shelf,he has arrangedthe gist of it in strictly chronological order and has written a single volumeas long and as crowded with details of behavior as a Dreiser novel.It prom-ises to stand for years as the authoritative biograpliy. And yet— I found it rather hard to read and,in the end,disappointing.Such anexperience with the book suggests a question.Might there not be somethingfaulty in Mr.Swanberg's behavioristic method,or at least in his use of themethod to present the extraordinary sort of person that Dreiser was? I note that the biographer is full of good intentions toward lhis sub-ject—if sometimes unable to repress his impatience-and that his admira-tion for Dreiser's novels seems greater than my own.Yet I aiso note thatthe hero of his story seems meaner,smaller,and less deserving of sympathythan I suspect that Dreiser was in life.Something essential is missing fromthe book.We find in it Dreiser's love affairs,not the interminable list ofthem,but more than a sufficient sampling.We find his business dealings,sometimes less than strictly honest;we find his public and private squabbles,his income-tax returns,his childish cunning,his massive ingratitude—inshort,his deeds if not his dreams.But do we find Dreiser himself?Thereis something in him elusive,almost ungraspable—though one finds it re-vealed in his books more than in his outer life-and it is the quality thatgives him stature in spite of his transgressions.Mr.Swanberg has failedto do more than briefly and intermittently suggest it. I would venture that the missing quality is Dreiser's genius. Dreiser is the clearest example in American literature,and perhaps inAmerican life,of a man who possessed genius in its raw state,genius almostcompletely unfortified and unrefined by talent.He is our great primitive,compared with whom even Whitnan seems overcivilized.Possibly Dreiserhad more genius than any other American writer of our century,and it wasnot genius in the sense of mere inspiration or a miraculous waterfall ofwords.It was rather a vision of life that controlled the tone of his works,their choice of detail,their treatment of character,and their massing ofevents toward an inevitable climax—in short,(Coutiued o11 page 8) Anyone who has ever had anythingpublished is askcd,sooner or later,"How did yot get your start in writ-ing?”I 'never quite knew until an un-explored chest in an abandoned store-room finally gave up the answers:inletters from a girl who was very y

FAQs

What does the reviewer think Swanberg did well in the Dreiser biography?

The reviewer praises Swanberg’s diligent research, including extensive Dreiser material, letters, and interviews, and notes that the book arranges information in strict chronological order.

Why does the reviewer say something essential is missing from the biography?

The reviewer argues the method fails to convey Dreiser’s elusive inner quality, making the subject seem meaner, smaller, and less sympathetic than in life.

What does the reviewer believe is the missing quality in Dreiser’s portrayal?

The reviewer proposes that the missing quality is Dreiser’s genius—raw, unrefined, and expressed through his vision of life and control of the tone, details, and climax of his works.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Grenda