Charles Fort has often been described as a hermit, but he was not wanting for fans and friends. Theodore Dreiser befriended him early in both their careers. As editor of Smith’s Magazine, Dreiser bought some of his short stories: droll, salty tales of newspaper life and the poor Irish of the Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood in Manhattan. He encouraged Fort’s literary experiments, and invited him to parties (to one honouring Edgar Lee Masters, for example). Fort, in turn, invited Dreiser to his home for beer, cheese, and “to-peach-o,” a tomato-peach preserve whose recipe is now, sadly, lost.

Dreiser’s first novel, Sister Carrie, was published in 1900 to both scandal and acclaim.