The Washington times., 1933-01-31

how she came to be socologist at Copperhead without
caring how she felt and Indifferent at the end TO her
actions and reactions Those chapters colossal they
justify the frequent comparison of Lewis to DlcKens'
they make you i'll with ana Ues novel; Toy
never wrote "War and Peace
Lewis Smiles at Babbitt
There are other good things in the book particularly
section devoted to AIMS experiences IN the suffrage
movement; and to those who have followed Sinclair
Lewis through the battle of the Rabbits it will be enter
tanning to note how benignly and ndulgenty ne treats
a group of American business men, making them as
they cluster round ships bar, seem more reai ana ana
more admirable to Ann than poets and retormers Lewis
hasn't exactly become Olympan but he can make 1uh
of his early creations.
It is onlv fair for me to confess that I think Lewis
has written only book Of the first class ArroW row
smith, in which there are three four characters WIN
10 times the vitality of Babbitt or Ann Vckers IKE
George F. Babbtt-who came to life only toward m tne
end of his book-Ann is largely figure around Wnom
events swirl and eddy She is more easily torgotCen
than woman selling apples at street corner The woman
selling apples is symptom of an economic CRISIS ana
Ann good enough carrier for the outline OF REFORM
190O-193O. Personally she is not memorable
Lots of Ideas
"Ann Vickers' is a good summary of average radl-
cal-lberaI thought the subjects of SEX marriage
penology, militarsm, charity and other tn1ngs ~
strikes being prepanic stuff which would not De
fatal (snce "Gulivers Travels is also prepanc and
immorta) if the human story in it were at all absorb
ing. is not absorbing to because 1t has no inner
reality of it's own if Mr. Lewis had neither felt nor
observed for himself but had accepted the ideas and
the characters OF others.
In his review of H. G. Wells book "The Bup-
ngton of Bulp Joseph Wood Krutch says wisely that
Wells invented his hero and heroine, in the old days.
Sin order that life might initiate them, and he had the
satisfaction of seeing young people make every effort
to live the biographies he had already written about
them thought for moment that if life didn't lm-
tate the Wesan character Sinclair Lewis did; but the
truth is more to Mr. Lewis credit. He has put into
his book the American version of the Welslan people
because they exist here It is not imitation, but lnt-
ence And again excepting the prison episodes, it is
all waste of time.
Another Estimate
The publishers of "Ann Vickers" doubleday,
Doran) have also issued biographical sketch OF Sim
clair Lewis by Carl Van Doren. few preliminary
pages deal with the present novel, Mr.. Van Doren
speaks of the green springing energy which has
marked all his work" and says Lewis has done justice
to large theme and that the book will contro-
versy about two things in particular: American
prisons as bad they to be in the book and are
a womans work and her love compatible? If the odor
of staleness isn't these questions only because
they have been pushed aside by urgent problems
in the past five years.
The biography which follows is critical, enthusiastic
and probably has sounder view of Mr.. Lewis impor
tance than my own The list of Lewis work at the end
will amuse those who try to follow authors course
and are sure that the beginning is clue to the end,
for the author of satrcal and realistic novels wrote,
in his college days, poems in German, translations
from the classics and poem called Faerles OF the Lake.
RK NA Co., Eo~~~p~a~v