American author and journalist Theodore Dreiser (1871-December 28, 1945) was a naturalist. In several of his works, the main characters achieved their goals despite the absence of a clear moral code. The best-known books of Dreiser are An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie (1900). John Paul Dreiser and Sarah Maria (née Schanab), his parents, welcomed him into the world in Terre Haute, Indiana. German immigrant John Dreiser came to Prussia from Mayen in the Rhine Province. Near Dayton, Ohio, Sarah was a native of a Mennonite agricultural village. Dreiser began working for newspapers in Chicago, Saint Louis, Toledo, Pittsburgh, and New York in 1892 as a reporter and theatrical critic. An American Tragedy, which was published in 1925, was Dreiser's first literary triumph. His older brother Paul Dresser, who rose to fame as a musician in the 1890s, was the subject of Dreiser's short tale "My Brother Paul." In 1918, he released his first collection of short tales, Free and Other Stories. The idea of poverty and ambition is continued in his poem "The Aspirant" from 1929.