Sinclair Lewis
Subtitle: rebel from Main Street
By: Richard Lingeman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 659
Subjects: Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951.; Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography.; Satire, American -- History and criticism.
Genres: Biography.
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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [625]-631) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: CHAPTER 1 Harry 3; title: CHAPTER 2 Go East, Young Man 16; title: CHAPTER 3 The Seacoast of Bohemia 37; title: CHAPTER 4 Our Mr. Lewis 45; title: CHAPTER 5 The Commuter 63; title: CHAPTER 6 The "Satevenposter" 72; title: CHAPTER 7 Research Magnificent 88; title: CHAPTER 8 Home Front Io0; title: CHAPTER 9 Looking for Main Street 117; title: CHAPTER IO Washington Merry-Go-Round 136; title: CHAPTER II The Famooser 149; title: CHAPTER 12 Babbitts Abroad x66; title: CHAPTER 13 Babbitt in London Town 179; title: CHAPTER 14 The Age of Pep 199; title: CHAPTER 15 In Search of Arrowsmith 215; title: CHAPTER 16 A London Season 236; title: CHAPTER 17 Designs for Living 252; title: CHAPTER I8 Sounding Brass 267; title: CHAPTER I9 The Triumph of Gantryism 282; title: CHAPTER 20 The Tears of Things 298; title: CHAPTER 21 Dorothy and Red 3i6; title: CHAPTER 22 Travels on the Left 335; title: CHAPTER 23 Zenith in Stockholm 346; title: CHAPTER 24 Thorns in the Laurels 360; title: CHAPTER 25 A Great Woman 377; title: CHAPTER 26 Can It Happen Here? 392; title: CHAPTER 27 Political Theater 407; title: CHAPTER 28 Exits and Entrances 428; title: CHAPTER 29 The Quiet Mind 446; title: CHAPTER 30 On Native Ground 462; title: CHAPTER 31 Grand Republic 478; title: CHAPTER 32 The American Dilemma 492; title: CHAPTER 33 The Lion at Evening 509; title: CHAPTER 34 Wanderer 524.