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More detailed information is provided on our time line of Lewis's life, and we invite you to test your Lewis knowledge with our quiz. For those with a sweet tooth, try your hand at making some of Lewis's favorite recipes. E-mail Dr. Sally Parry of the Sinclair Lewis Society and let her know how you like them! |
Sinclair
Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature,
was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, in 1885. Although he was proud
of his Midwestern roots, he traveled widely and was interested
in many different aspects of American society, from business and
medicine to religion and small town life. His concern with issues
involving women, race, and the powerless in society make his work
still vital and pertinent today. As Sheldon Norman Grebstein wrote
in his work Sinclair Lewis, Lewis "was the conscience
of his generation and he could well serve as the conscience of
our own. His analysis of the America of the 1920s holds true for
the America of today. His prophecies have become our truths and
his fears our most crucial problems." Sinclair Lewis was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Main Street and Babbitt,
and won the award for Arrowsmith (although he turned it
down). He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters
and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He died in Rome
in 1951.