Theodre Dreiser was born into a large and impoverished German American family in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871. He began his writing career as a reporter, working for newspapers in Chicago. Pittsburg, and St. Louis, until an editor friend, Arthur Henry, suggested he write a novel. The result was Sister Carrie, based on the life of Dreisers own sister Emma, who had run off to New York with a married man. Rejected by several publishers as immoral, the book was finally accepted by Doubleday and Company, and published-over Frank Doubledays strong objections-in 1900.