About the Author

The naturalist author Theodore Dreiser was obsessed with true crime, keeping track of articles and cases in the early 20th century.

The Novel

The product of this obsession was his 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy", based on a true crime story from New York's Adirondack Mountains region that Dreiser followed.

This novel was one of Dreiser's most successful works and has often been hailed as his masterpiece.