A Traveler at Forty

Before publishing Dreiser’s European travel book in 1913, the Century Company editors had heavily excised autobiographical reminiscences, philosophical speculations, revealing portraits of prominent figures, Dreiser’s relationships with women, and his carefully observed renditions of lower-class urban life. This newly edited text is based on the typescript that Dreiser himself had prepared from his holograph in order to preserve it fully for future publication. The text reveals Dreiser’s multiple motives in going to Europe–not least the cultivation of his reputation in England and the exploration of his ancestral roots in Germany. The earlier text is about places; the fuller text is about Dreiser himself.