The "Genius"

Theodore Dreiser

Published by Garden City Publishing, Garden City, New York, 1923

About this Item

Unlike many of the other copies of this book for sale, this one does not have binding issues. There are no cracks or spaces. The binding is solid from cover to cover, and the pages are nicely tight. The black covers are in very good condition. You can see them in the first three photos. They have some light 'clouding', but no conspicuous stains. The gilt lettering on the spine is very bright. The spine ends have some of the expected crinkling. The top page edge is red. The middle page edge is deckled. The covers edges and corners have little to no wear. The interior of the book is in very good condition. The pages are very clean. In scrolling through, I found two instances of a spot of soiling, both on the white margin. I can't guarantee there aren't a few more, but very clearly the pages are very clean. They also don't have any conspicuous creasing. I didn't find any turned down or dogeared corners. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere. 'The "Genius" is a semi-autobiographical novel by Theodore Dreiser, first published in 1915. It concerns Eugene Witla, a talented painter of strong sexual desires who grapples with his commitment to his art and the force of his erotic needs. The book sold 8,000 copies in the months immediately following publication (1915) but encountered legal difficulties when it was declared potentially obscene. Dreiser's publisher (John Lane) was nervous about continuing publication and recalled the book from bookstores, and the novel did not receive broad distribution until 1923. When The "Genius" was reissued by different publisher, the firm of Horace Liveright, it immediately sold more than 40,000 copies. The credit Dreiser felt he deserved (and did not receive) for his honesty about sexual urges and damaged relationships and his original publisher's decision not to stand by the novel in the face of criticism contributed to his lifelong feeling that the book had never been given its due. Many libraries and bookstores refused to stock the book, and the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice threatened legal action, leading Dreiser's supporters to issue their own call to arms. Critic Willard Huntington Wright, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review and The Smart Set and a Dreiser fan of long standing, threw himself "wholeheartedly into an anti-censorship campaign on behalf of [the novel]. Along with Alfred Knopf, John Cowper Powys, [publisher Ben] Huebsch, and Mencken, [he] circulated petitions and drummed up support wherever he could for the man he believed to be the most significant, unjustly harassed writer of the day." Eventually, five hundred writers signed an Authors' League petition on behalf of The "Genius", including Willa Cather, Max Eastman, Robert Frost, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Amy Lowell, Jack Reed, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Ida Tarbell, and Booth Tarkington. A foreword to the 1923 reissue of the novel addressed the censorship issue directly: "It has been urged that this book is detrimental to the morals of the young and might have had a bad effect upon people with weak moral sense, but are thousands of perfectly normal and responsible people to be denied this form of aesthetic stimulation simply because it is harmful to children and perverts?'. Seller Inventory # 002406

Bibliographic Details

Title: The "Genius"

Publisher: Garden City Publishing, Garden City, New York

Publication Date: 1923

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good