Theodore Dreiser Visits Toronto

Abstract

In the latter part of September 1942, Theodore Dreiser visited Toronto at the invitation of the Toronto Town Forum to address an Eaton Auditorium audience on a topic advertised as "Democracy on the Offensive." His brief stay in Toronto, his forced and abrupt departure after making anti-British statements at a press conference, and the aftermath of these events in Canada, the United States and abroad have been the subject of only brief mention by commentators on Dreiser's life and work. The most extended account is to be found in W. A. Swanberg's Dreiser, and allusion is made to these occurrences as well by Robert H. Elias in his Theodore Dreiser: Apostle of Nature, and in his Letters of Theodore Dreiser where he cites relevant correspondence and comments on it.1 Swanberg's account is generally accurate, if sketchy: understandably it is not his purpose to dwell for any length of time on events that are of only marginal importance for one concerned with the whole of Dreiser's life. But the story of the Toronto visit and its repercussions bears re-telling in more extended fashion with as many as possible of the gaps filled in and especially with an eye to the circumstances that led to Dreiser's saying what he did and that prompted the kinds of reactions his statements received. The Dreiser biography would benefit from a more complete examination of these unfortunate incidents which caused Dreiser considerable upset at a time when he was in feeble health, and which put his reputation is some jeopardy, at least for a while, in his own country and abroad.