“The New Russia” and the Old Offenses: the Scandal around T. Draiser’s and D. Thhompson's Soviet Travelogues

Abstract

The article provides a detailed analysis of the circumstances of the literary scandal concerning the publication of two travelogues about Soviet Russia — “Dreiser Looks at Russia” (T. Dreiser) and “New Russia” (D. Thompson) in 1928 — and the plagiarism charges that Thompson put forward against Dreiser. This paper examines the background of this episode and its connection with the events of the subsequent years: the Nobel Prize received by Lewis in 1930 and a dinner at the Metropolitan Club, at which Dreiser gave a slap to Lewis (1931). These episodes are interpreted as the result of the difficult relationship between Dreiser and Lewis built not only on personal hostility but also on the rivalry of the writers of the two generations, one of which is essentially the successor to the other. The conflict of interest between two journalists (Dreiser and Thompson) made the confrontation between two writers (Dreiser and Lewis) obvious. Extensive press materials from 1928–1931 were included in the study. The article discusses all existing versions that explain the presence of literal coincidences in the two travelogues. The article is followed by the publication of the hitherto unpublished letters of Ruth Kennell, which she wrote to Dreiser in 1928–1929 concerning the plagiarism case are published.

Keywords

• american literature
• travel literature
• plagiarism case
• slapping incident
• theodore dreiser
• sinclair lewis
• dorothy thompson
• ruth kennell
• ussr
• archival materials.