An American Tragedy and nbsp;is a 1925 novel by American writer and nbsp;Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious and nbsp;murder of Grace Brown and nbsp;in 1906 and the trial of her lover. In 1923 Dreiser returned to the project, and with the help of his wife Helen and two editor-secretaries, Louise Campbell and Sally Kusell, he completed the massive novel in 1925. and nbsp;