Sinclair Lewis (Magill’s Literary Annual 2003)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Lingeman
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1885-1951
- Setting: Minnesota, New York, New England, and Europe
- Principal Characters: Sinclair Lewis, Grace Hegger Lewis, Wells Lewis, Dorothy Thompson, Michael Lewis, Marcella Powers, H. L. Mencken
- Subjects: Politics, Twentieth century, Authors or writers, Nineteenth century, Literature, Midwest, Novelists, Small-town life, Drinking or drunkenness, Materialism, Minnesota, Fables, Activism
Sinclair Lewis opened up American fiction in the twentieth century. Before F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), Ernest Hemingway (1899-1960), or William Faulkner (1897-1962), Lewis’s social realism had described the outstanding features of emergent modern American culture, with—in the names he coined—its “Babbitts” and “Elmer Gantrys” walking down its “Main Streets.” The American novel of the twentieth century can be said to have begun with Sinclair Lewis, and Richard Lingeman’s biography gives the background to his books, shows the hard work and sacrifice that went into...
[The entire page is 1875 words long]
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