Sister Carrie "A Strangely Strong Novel in a Queer Milieu"
Curated by Nancy M. Shawcross Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania

The first edition of Henry's first novel was published in the same year and by the same publisher as Sister Carrie. The latter, however, received a plain-red binding with plain-black lettering, described by one of Dreiser's biographers as "an assassin's binding." Sister Carrie was not even listed in the Doubleday, Page & Co. catalogue, while A Princess of Arcady was described as a "charming idyll," "a delicate romance," and a "striking contrast to the strenuous and often unpleasant fiction which is so common today."