Title

Sinclair Lewis : rebel from Main Street

Description

The critic Edmund Wilson called Sinclair Lewis one of the national poets." In the 1920s, Lewis fired off a fusillade of sensational novels, exploding American shibboleths with a volatile mixture of caricature and photographic realism. With an unerring eye for the American scene and an omnivorous ear for American talk, he mocked such sacrosanct institutions as the small town (Main Street), business (Babbitt), medicine (Arrowsmith), and religion (Elmer Gantry). His shrewdly observed characters became part of the American gallery, and his titles became part of the language." "Bringing to bear newly uncovered correspondence, diaries, and criticism, Richard Lingeman, distinguished biographer of Theodore Dreiser, paints a sympathetic portrait - in all its multihued contradictions - of a seminal American writer who could be inwardly the loneliest of men and outwardly as gregarious as George Follansbee Babbitt himself. Lingeman writes with sympathy and understanding about Lewis's losing struggle with alcoholism; his stormy marriages, including one to the superwoman Dorothy Thompson, whose fame as a newspaper columnist in the 1930s outshone Lewis's fading star as a novelist; and his wistful, autumnal love for an actress more than thirty years younger than he."--Jacket.

Identifier

995246

679438238

Creator

Lingeman, Richard R

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

2002

Program air date: March 10, 2002

Publisher

Random House

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes from front endpapers and front flyleaf: "S.L.: 1885-1951. - Main Street, 1920; Babbitt; Elmer Gantry; Arrowsmith; Dodsworth; Kingsblood Royal, 1947. - Harry Sinclair Lewis, d. 1891; he was 6; new mother Isabel Warner a year later; 2 brothers Fred and Claude. - Oberlin; Yale - dropped out 1906. - Worked as janitor for Upton Sinclair; worked in NYC, then to Panama, then back to Yale for his senior year. Class of 1907 voted him "most eccentric"; first job Waterloo Courier, 1908, [from] which he was fired. - Redbook story - 1st [?] Carmel, then to S.F.; fired by S.F. Bulletin. - The A.P. until 1910 - resigned before fired - to Wash. - Jack London gave $5 each for 14 plots; Dad refused $360 loan then moved to NYC, joins Socialist Party, 1911, included Lippman. - As a child - a voracious reader; helped his father perform amputations; wanted [to go to] Harvard, sent to Yale. - Grace; wedding April 15, 1914 (p. 65). - Marriage to Dorothy dissolved, Jan. 2, 1942. - Wells grad. from Harvard, 1939. - Hal's view of life, p. 212: "Awareness". - Pulitzer for Arrowsmith, 1926. - Divorce from Grace Apr. 16, 1928. - Wedding to Dorothy Thompson May 14, 1928. - Main Street: Judy 1920 finished. - S.L. 35 yrs. old. - 1st printing: 10,000 copies; written near Mayflower, top floor of boarding house. - Oct. 1920: official pub. date. - Name S.L. didn't appear on Saturday E. Post for another 10 yrs. - By Jan. 100,000 sold; a year after: 295,000; eventually: 414,000 full price copies sold; total: 2 million. - Main Street meshed with post war mood of cynicism, p. 158; pro farmer, populist novel: married women made up bulk of readers. In 1920 half of U.S. lived in towns of 2500 or less. - p. 492: Duluth, 1945, bought a house; novel 'Kingsblood Royal' - most inflammatory of all books. - Wrote two novels; fell off wagon there. - Began his confrontation and discussion of 'race'; lonely beyond belief - didn't have many friends; moved to Williamstown, MA., buys large house, his 5th and last. - Mencken soured on Gracie after one of her tirades walking all over Lewis; said Lewis had "an inferiority complex". - p. 312: Dorothy Thompson: meets her in Berlin - she was 34, getting divorce from Joseph Bard who said she was too dominating and lesbian; he asked her to marry him on first night party at 3 a.m. - Eugene Debs - eventually was completely disillusioned; a novel possibility; about Labor; about labor people; were plain books or Babbitts in overalls." -- Notes from half title page: "Gracie's letters to Stella Wood. - The Nation reflected Lewis' left liberal views. - Babbitt: centered in Zenith, p. 166; sold 240,000 [copies] in 1922. - George F. Babbitt: description, p. 172. - Elmer Gantry: March 10, 1927, p. 298: Lewis in the pulpit in Kansas City; Monkey Trial got him interested; seriously but fatally flawed; Sharon Falconer. - His real target was fundamentalism; permeated by misogyny. - p. 309: Ludwig Lewisohn: In Paris at a party Lewis is drunk, says to Elmer Rice's [wife]: "Go back to the ghetto where you belong". - He throws him out. - Wells named after H.G. Wells, born in NYC. the Lewises lived on top of Manhattan; had gone to Billy Sunday revival - he walked down aisle of conversion to see what it was like. - In 1917 - a pacifist - he earned about $10,000 a yr. ( $150,000 today); joined Nonpartisan League; lived in St. Paul." -- Notes from back endpapers: "Twin Farms, Vermont; Washington; London; New York; Carmel; U. of Wisconsin; Duluth; Williamstown; Chatham, Cape Cod - during WWI; St. Paul; Kansas City; Sauk Centre; Hartford; Paris - French country villa. - Wells killed in France Oct. 29, 1944. - Skin cancer. - He was associated with America first; 2 yrs. of sobriety, 1940-42; Marcella allowance / allowed to date other men. - Sinc. Lewis dies 1951; Dorothy Thompson 1961. Their son Michael - 1985 - alcoholism, actor; his son John Paul felt ripple of S.L. legacy; his brother Gregory lives in N.O. - Grace Hegger Lewis Casanova: pub. memoirs in 1955, died 1981. - Marcella Powers: he was 56, she 18; she conceived. - Dorothy filed for divorce Nov. 1941. - Big themes: conformity, religious hucksterism, knowledge vs. commerce. - Last voyage Sept. 7, 1949 with Claude. - Maude Parker Child, p. 289: infatuated; chaos is created around her coming home from Europe and the completion of Elmer Gantry. - "I love America but I don't like it", p. 547. - 1914: Published 'Our Mr. Wrenn', dedicated to Grace Livingstone Hegger; announced engagement." - p. 3 of cover consists of a list of his novels with publication dates. -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book.

Subject

"Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951."

"Novelists, American--20th century--Biography."

"Satire, American--History and criticism."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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