Description
In an era when controversial authors are com- monplace, SINCLAIR LEWIS-the man and the myth-remains uncommon.
From Lewis' first works to his last, critics could not agree on whether he was a profound and ar- ticulate spokesman against hypocrisy in America or simply an "angry young man" who insisted on being angry when he was no longer young.
Mark Schorer, who has written the definitive Lewis biography, has compiled 24 divergent evaluations of Lewis the author. This volume is a crystallization of the conflict of opinion about Lewis-presented in essays by some of the most stimulating- critics of this century.
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 โ January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." Lewis wrote six popular novels: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can't Happen Here (1935).
His works were critical of American capitalism and materialism during the interwar period.[1] Lewis is respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds.
