Dreiser's Russian Diary (The University of Pennsylvania Dreiser Edition) [Hardcover]

Theodore Dreiser (Author), Thomas P. Riggio (Editor), James L. W. West III (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996 | Series: The University of Pennsylvania Dreiser Edition

Theodore Dreiser's Russian Diary is an extended record of the American writer's travels throughout the Soviet Union in 1927-28. Dreiser was initially invited to Moscow for a week-long observance of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. He asked, and was granted, permission to make an extended tour of the country.

This previously unpublished diary is a firsthand record of life in the USSR during the 1920s as seen by a leading American cultural figure. It is a valuable primary source, surely among the last from this period of modern history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In October 1927, Theodore Dreiser was invited to come to the U.S.S.R. to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Revolution as a guest of the state. His diary of this two-months-and-a-bit trip to Moscow (twice), Leningrad and then on to Nizhni-Novgorod, Kharkov, Rostov, Tiflis, Yalta and Odessa was held up at the Russian border, and no wonder. It starts out submissively enough, with reports of plays and factories visited, of functionaries questioned, all typed out by the American expatriate Ruth Epperson Kennell, who was Dreiser's secretary and lover while in Russia. But Dreiser's dismay over the subjugation of the individual?and the intellectual?to the masses started to sour him. By the time he returns to Moscow and interviews Nikolai Bukharin, director of the Third International, he is testier: "Now in the street there is a street cleaner of very low intelligence. Do you mean to say that his position in society is the same as yours. (I'll die but I'll get this out of him.)" Even greater truculence is suggested in the sections appended after the trip in his own hand. "Mr. Hughes introduces comfort into Russia. Real flowers. The central house toilet. It makes me suggest a national toilet day for Russia." Faced with the Depression later, Dreiser, like other American intellectuals, would praise the Soviet system. What's ironic and a little sad is that at the time of his visit, with the Red Terror and the worst famines of the '20s behind them, the NEP in swing and before either the five-year plans or Stalin's retributions were firmly established, the Soviet Union was experiencing the most humane moment of its early history. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dreiser, a leading voice in the American naturalist movement (Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy), visited the Soviet Union during the winter of 1927-28 at the invitation of the fledgling Soviet government to report on celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. He kept a diary recording his reactions as well as personal conversations with important figures such as actor/director Konstantin Stanislavsky and poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Ruth Kennell, an American expatriate and Dreiser's secretary on the trip (and later his lover), worked tirelessly to transcribe events and edit the manuscript. As a result, the book is polished. Editors Riggio and West (English, Univ. of Pennsylvania) contend that the more Dreiser saw of the Soviet Union, the more the journal evolved into a political invective against the Communist experiment. His diary makes fascinating reading and is an important addition to the scant collection of firsthand accounts of the early Soviet regime. Highly recommended.?Diane G. Premo, Rochester P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812280911
• ISBN-13: 978-0812280913
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,924,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)