Books with author Lewis Sinclair

The only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, rampant promiscuity, crime, and a liberal press. Now finally back in print, It Can't Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that's as fresh and contemporary as today's news. "Written at white heat." —Chicago Tribune "A message to thinking Americans." —Springfield Republican "Not only [Lewis's] most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in this country." —The New Yorker

In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George Babbitt's daily struggles to rise to the top of his profession while maintaining his reputation as an upstanding family man.On the surface, Babbitt appears to be the quintessential middle-class embodiment of conservative values and enthusiasm for the well-to-do lifestyle of the small entrepreneur. But beneath the complacent facade, he also experiences a rising, nameless discontent. These feelings eventually lead Babbitt into risky escapades that threaten his family and his standing in the community.

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Harry Sinclair Lewis (7th February, 1885 – 10th January, 1951) was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930 "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." Whilst an accurate description of his writing it misses the central theme and tone of his work which is more evident from his own words in accepting the Prize: “America is the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today” and on American literary establishment: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead." Lewis was born in the small town of Sauk in Minnesota and although he led an unhappy childhood there, the town was to provide the model for the fictional town of Gopher Prairie in Minnesota where the Main Street of the book’s titles is set. The publication of Main Street was a phenomenal success, selling 2 million copies despite the projected sales of 25,000 by his agent and securing Lewis’s financial and literary future. The book is critical of the conformity and narrow mindedness of small town America seen through the eyes of Carol Kennicott who desires social reform for women and greater individual happiness. This chimed perfectly with the era of a growing labour movement and, in the same year of its publication, women getting the vote in the US. However. many literary critics believe that the real power of the book transcends its contemporary themes and satire of simple towns folk and superficial intellectuals that think they are so superior but stems from Lewis’s faithful reproduction of local speech and customs. Lewis has been honoured with a postage stamp in the US and many feel strongly that his impact on modern American life was far greater than Hemingway, Fitzgerald or Faulkner.

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Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. This novel is about a young girl, recently graduated from college, who sets out to find action in the big city. It is a classic story upon which many novels, movies, and television shows are based.