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

Photograph of Frank Norris

Born in Chicago in 1870, Benjamin Frank Norris died far too young in 1902, following an appendix operation. Journalist, publisher's reader, and novelist, Norris produced three novels in his lifetime--McTeague: A Story San Francisco (1899), A Man's Woman (1900), and The Octopus (1901)--and one posthumously--The Pitt (1903).

Frank Norris
Autograph letter signed to Theodore Dreiser
28 May 1900

This two-page letter offers a summary of Norris' positive assessment of Sister Carrie and indicates that he has passed the work up to Henry Lanier, senior editor at Doubleday, Page & Co.

Signed contact between Theodore Dreiser and Doubleday, Page & Co., witnessed by Frank Norris
20 August 1900

The contract had been filled out by Doubleday as an agreement to publish a novel entitled "The Flesh and the Spirit." Next to that Dreiser wrote: "or Sister Carrie."