Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-15
Sinclair Lewis and Rabbit
In Nobel Prize Controversy

American commentators discover a fly
or two in the amber as they examine
the Nobel prize award. While some
compare the literary merits OF Sinclair
Lewis with previous awards TO the for
mer's disadvantage, the majority Is sat-
isfied. Quite number, however, resent
Mr.. Babbitt and his somewhat inglo-
rious fellow creatures, considering them
caricatures rather than true types OF
America and small credit to their au-
thor. 49,.
THE selection is happy one" says
the Milwaukee Sentinel, though
America has better writer's than Mr..
Lewis, but 1t has no writer who depicts
American people and institutions more
truthfully and painstakingly, Mr.. Lewis
carried realism to its logical conclusion.
He is more the photographer than the
painter, and he has given the world q
large number of fine, If not hattering,
photographs Of his countrymen. The
most remarkable thing about Mr.. Lewis
career has been his tremendous popular
lily, eliminating in the Nobel prize
award, following his deliberate choosing
Of subject matter which any critic in
the United States would have told him
would make him the most heartily dis
liked writer in the land Of happy end
ings and last reel embraces"
Lewis has offended a great mass OF
American readers" agrees the Omaha
World Herald, while recognizing that
there is developing in his work q
warmer touch" and that several of his
works will live long as revealing docu-
ments of his time and his people," The
Erie Dispatch-He observes that
Lewis and Dresser and ONein are read
abroad with enthusiasm precisely be-
cause they are unlike European writer's;
that "they may not be representative,
but they are characteristic" and that
mo European could have written what
they have written" The Dispatch Her
aid concludes, THAT, apparently, is
what the European wants from Amert-
can literature"
None of Lewis novels Is a dull book,
says the Charleston tS CO. Evening Post.
Most Of them have been famous for the
controversies they aroused, but even in
the most argumentative the story was
the thing. 4 In Babbitt and Elmer Gan
try he created two characters 1t will be
hard to forget. The Nobel judges have
made a popular award this time, one
which seems to satisfy European critics
and which Americans are hailing with
delight"
The Elmira STAR Gazette feels that
the award lis an indication that the
standards of literary art have moved
away from the older style of past prize
winners toward the more spirited style
of the American writer's" The Okla
homa City Times states that perhaps
no other American writer nas been more
severely denounced by many of his
countrymen," but that 1.-The merit of his
work stands forth clearly
1--WE have no quarrel" declares the
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, with those
critics who contend that to the extent
Sinclair Lewis has been the bitter sati-
rist of things American he has not been
ing that he has been guilty of exagger-
alton, we may answer so was Dick
ems, and even the good-natured Mark
Twain But as matter of fact, Lewis
dealt with George Babbitt in kindly
sympathy. You may have loathed Ell
mer Gantry, and you may have been
disguised with Will Kinnicutt--but who
could help feeling tenderly sorry for
George Babbitt? Anyway, achievement
in literature Is not altogether improp-
erly associated with popularity, and, as
one literary observer has recently said,
a fair working rule will assign weight
to success as we'll as merit Surely
then, by the mass and quality of
achievement, Sinclair Lewis has well
qualified to receive the distinction which
has been accorded him by the Nobel
prize judges"
"Of all folk in the 48 statesl" ex-
claims the Little Rock Arkansas
Democrat, adding: But here are tidings
even worse. Lewis won the coveted
prize principally with his book, Bah
bitt'" The Democrat concludes ''WelI,
IL the fact doesn't do anything else. it
at least refutes the contention Of so
many Of our English brethren that
nothing good in literature can come out
of The States That should tickih The
very patriots who so deeply ressnfed
Rabbit, because it proves that anotter
home boy has reached the top"
I'VE have a tdeae. axgueG the ndA