eatest butcheries, "uncertainty and fear that now transformation-wise played over his countenance" (Dreiser 448) and "coward-wise" (453). They also note his annoying tendency to fragment complete sentences by adding the "-ing" suffix. Most critics fail to realize that his style adds realism to and makes consistent his naturalist theme. As Bucco of Cliffs Notes wisely said, "...Dreiser is one of the world's best worst writers[.] He is an impurist with nothing but genius" (8). Dreiser's eccentric writing method may explain his strange plot structure and nonstandard style. Each day, he wrote 3,000 words during a six-hour hypnotic session, then walked to his local library to verify details. (He never edited his work, however.) At night, he held open discussions and poetry sessions in his home; during this time, he wrote critiques of local authors' work for free. His visitors became characters in his novels. Dreiser, said H.L. Mencken, remembered everything: "When he described a street in Chicago [or] New York it was always a street that he knew as intimately as the policeman on the beat, and he never omitted any detail that had stuck in his mind..." (8). Every meal he ate, every conversation he heard, every useless fact, became part of the rich texture of his novels. To add detail to Book Three of An American Tragedy, he visited Sing-Sing prison's death row and the courthouse where Gillette was tried, and even discussed the psychology of murder with renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jacques Lobe. However, his most effective method of immersion was writing from his own experiences. Similarities between Dreiser and his most famous character, Clyde Griffiths, are shocking. Both spent their adolescent lives searching for the American Dream, had in-office love affairs with underlings, struggled to gain footing in the elusive high society, and lost everything because of their greed. An American Tragedy was based on the infamous Chester Gillette case. Che...
