Editing Theodore Dreiser (section)

==Personal life==
Dreiser's appearance and personality were described by [[Edgar Lee Masters]] in a poem, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ATheodore_Dreiser%3B_America%27s_foremost_novelist_(IA_theodoredreiser00londrich).pdf&page=6 ''Theodore Dreiser: A Portrait''], published in ''[[The New York Times Review of Books]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Theodore Dreiser: America's foremost novelist. |publisher=John Lane Company |location=New York |pages=6–8 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ATheodore_Dreiser%3B_America%27s_foremost_novelist_(IA_theodoredreiser00londrich).pdf&page=6 |access-date=8 August 2021}}</ref> 
[[File:Theodore Dreiser Caricature.jpg|thumb|Caricature of Dreiser, 1917]]

While working as a newspaperman in St. Louis, Dreiser met schoolteacher Sara Osborne White. They became engaged in 1893<ref>{{cite book |title=Riggio op cit |page=942}}</ref> and married on December 28, 1898. They separated in 1909, partly due to Dreiser's infatuation with [[Thelma Cudlipp]], the teenage daughter of a colleague, but were never formally divorced.<ref name="Newlin78">{{cite book|chapter=Cudlipp, Thelma (1892–1983)|last= Newlin|first= Keith |year=2003|title=A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia|pages=77–78|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Qqsc3zwrDtIC&pg=PA78 |isbn= 0-313-31680-5}}</ref>

In 1913, he began a romantic relationship with the actress and painter [[Kyra Markham]].<ref name="Clayton">{{cite book |title=Floyd Dell, The Life and Times of An American Rebel |last=Clayton|first=Douglas|year=1994|publisher=Ivan R. Dee}}</ref><ref name="Crosse">{{cite web|last1=Crosse|first1=John|title=Edward Weston, R. M. Schindler, Anna Zacsek, Lloyd Wright, Lawrence Tibbett, Reginald Pole, Beatrice Wood and Their Dramatic Circles|url=http://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2012/11/edward-weston-r-m-schindler-and-anushka.html|website=Southern California Architectural History Blog|date=November 1, 2012}}</ref> In 1919, Dreiser met his cousin Helen Patges Richardson (1894–1955) with whom he began an affair.<ref name=newlin101>{{cite book|chapter=Dreiser, Helen Richardson (1894–1955)|last= Newlin|first= Keith|year=2003|title=A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia|page=101|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group
|isbn= 0-313-31680-5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qqsc3zwrDtIC&pg=PA101}}</ref> Through the following decades, she remained the constant woman in his life, even through many more temporary love affairs (such as one with his secretary Clara Jaeger in the 1930s).<ref name="Lean">{{cite news| title= Clara Jaeger Secretary and mistress to Theodore Dreiser | author-first=Mary |author-last=Lean| work=The Independent| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clara-jaeger-516223.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clara-jaeger-516223.html |archive-date=May 7, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live| date=November 21, 2005}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Helen tolerated Dreiser's affairs, and they remained together until his death. Dreiser and Helen married on June 13, 1944,<ref name=newlin101/> his first wife Sara having died in 1942.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Theodore Dreiser Dies at Age of 74. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/12/29/archives/theodore-dreiser-dies-at-age-of-74-author-of-american-tragedy.html |access-date=9 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=December 29, 1945}}</ref>

Dreiser planned to return from his first European vacation on the ''[[RMS Titanic|Titanic]]'', but was talked out of it by an English publisher who recommended he board a cheaper ship.<ref name="Daugherty">{{cite journal| title= Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic | author-first=Greg|author-last= Daugherty| journal=Smithsonian Magazine| url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seven-famous-people-who-missed-the-titanic-101902418/| date=March 2012}}</ref>

Dreiser was an atheist.<ref>Cowie, Alexander, Alfred Kazin, and Charles Shapiro. "The Stature of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Survey of the Man and His Work." ''American Literature'' 28.2 (1956): 244. Web. "he turned against his father's orthodox religion and became an atheist."</ref>