An American Tragedy

An American Tragedy is a novel by the American writer Theodore Dreiser, published in 1925. It is based on a notorious murder that took place in 1906 and on the trial of the man accused of it.

Clyde Griffiths is raised by parents who are poor and devout, and as a young man he takes a series of menial jobs to help keep the family going. He works as a soda jerk and then as a bellhop at a hotel in Kansas City, where the other staff introduce him to drinking and to women.

Dreiser began writing the book in 1920 and abandoned most of what he had done a year later. He went back to it in 1923 and finished the long manuscript in 1925 with the help of his future wife and two secretaries.

The novel is a study of the American dream and of what its promises do to somebody who has nothing. It entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2021, and it has been adapted for the stage, the cinema and the opera.