SOURCE: Cook, Raymond A. “Novelist.” In Thomas Dixon, pp. 52-100. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974.

In this chapter from his full-length biographical and critical study, Cook examines Dixon's literary theories, novels, and nonfiction.

I. Literary Theory

The works of some writers may be considered apart from their lives since their philosophy of life and their principles of literary art may have sharp lines of demarcation separating them, but such a demarcation is not evident in the life and works of Thomas Dixon. When we consider his literary career in retrospect, the fusion of his social philosophy with his literary principles is immediately evident. After he had completed in 1903 The Leopard's Spots, his first novel, Dixon wrote: “I have made no effort to write literature. I had no ambition to shine as a literary gymnast. It has always seemed to me a waste of time to do such work. Every...