Although world-famous for his novels Sister Carrie and Jennie
Gerhardt, Theodore Dreiser was also highly accomplished in journalism,
autobiography, and travel writing. In 1919, having recently accepted the
publishing contract of a new publisher, Boni and Liveright, Dreiser
proposed to publish a "book of characters" that would collect twelve
biographical sketches of individuals who were major influences on
Dreiser, both as a man and as a writer. The resulting narratives combine
the best attributes of the character sketch, the autobiography, and the
short story into miniature masterpieces of prose.
The men profiled in Twelve Men are a diverse and colorful group: from
Dreiser's equally famous brother, the songwriter Paul Dresser ("My
Brother Paul"), to the entirely obscure railroad foreman Michael Burke
("The Mighty Rourke"), on whose work crew Dreiser had labored in 1903.
The twelve narratives are compelling portraits of the men portrayed, but
they also reveal many insights into Dreiser's own life and work. These
factors elevate the significance of Twelve Men to a level consistent
with other major works in the Dreiser canon.