Editing Sinclair Lewis (section)

==Career==
[[File:Lewis-Sinclair-LOC.jpg|thumb|left|Lewis in 1914]]

Lewis's earliest published creative work—romantic poetry and short sketches—appeared in the ''Yale Courant'' and the ''[[Yale Literary Magazine]]'', of which he became an editor. After graduation Lewis moved from job to job and from place to place in an effort to make ends meet, writing fiction for publication and to chase away boredom. In the summer of 1908, Lewis worked as an editorial writer at a newspaper in [[Waterloo, Iowa]]. In September of that year, he moved to the [[Carmel-by-the-Sea, California|Carmel-by-the-Sea]] writers' colony near [[Monterey, California]] to work for the [[Alice MacGowan|MacGowan sisters]] and to meet poet [[George Sterling]] in person. He left Carmel after six months, moving to San Francisco where Sterling helped him get a job at the ''San Francisco Evening Bulletin.'' Lewis returned to Carmel in spring 1910 and met [[Jack London]].<ref name="Lingeman"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Jack London letters to Sinclair Lewis, dated September through December 1910 |url=http://exhibits.lib.usu.edu/files/original/ed7011613724ee3e734106a0e25af9a2.pdf |website=Utah State University University Libraries Digital Exhibits |access-date=5 January 2023}}</ref>

In fall 1910, Lewis moved to [[New York (state)|New York]] to work for [[Frederick A. Stokes]]. The next year, he joined the [[Socialist Party of New York|New York chapter]] of the [[Socialist Party of America]]. Among his colleagues in the intellectual wing of the party were [[Walter Lippmann]], [[William English Walling]], [[Ernest Poole]], and [[John Sloan]].<ref name="Lingeman"/>

While working for newspapers and publishing houses he developed a facility for turning out shallow, popular stories that were purchased by a variety of magazines. He also earned money by selling plots to London, including one for the latter's unfinished novel ''[[The Assassination Bureau, Ltd]]''.

Lewis's first published book was ''Hike and the Aeroplane'', a [[Tom Swift]]-style [[potboiler]] that appeared in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham.

Sinclair Lewis's first serious novel, ''[[Our Mr. Wrenn|Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man]]'', appeared in 1914, followed by ''[[The Trail of the Hawk|The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life]]'' (1915) and ''[[The Job (1917 novel)|The Job]]'' (1917). That same year also saw the publication of another potboiler, ''[[The Innocents: A Story for Lovers]]'', an expanded version of a [[Serial (literature)|serial]] story that had originally appeared in ''[[Woman's Home Companion]]''. ''[[Free Air]]'', another refurbished serial story, was published in 1919.

===Commercial success===
Upon moving to [[Washington, D.C.]], Lewis devoted himself to writing. As early as 1916, he began taking notes for a realistic novel about small-town life. Work on that novel continued through mid-1920, when he completed ''[[Main Street (novel)|Main Street]]'', which was published on October 23, 1920.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 |title=The Romance of Sinclair Lewis |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |access-date=June 17, 2008}}</ref> His biographer [[Mark Schorer]] wrote in 1961 that the phenomenal success of ''Main Street'' "was the most sensational event in twentieth-century American publishing history".<ref>Schorer, 268</ref> Lewis's agent had the most optimistic projection of sales at 25,000 copies. In its first six months, ''Main Street'' sold 180,000 copies,<ref>Pastore, 91</ref> and within a few years, sales were estimated at two million.<ref>Schorer, 235, 263–69</ref> Richard Lingeman wrote in 2002, "''Main Street'' made [Lewis] rich—earning him about 3 million current dollars" (almost $5 million, as of 2022).<ref>Lingeman, 156.</ref>

[[File:Sinclair Lewis House.JPG|thumb|left|Sinclair Lewis's former residence in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
Lewis followed up this first great success with ''[[Babbitt (novel)|Babbitt]]'' (1922), a novel that satirized the American commercial culture and [[boosterism]]. The story was set in the fictional Midwestern town of [[Winnemac (fictional U.S. state)|Zenith, Winnemac]], a setting to which Lewis returned in future novels, including ''[[Arrowsmith (novel)|Arrowsmith]], [[Elmer Gantry]]'', ''[[Gideon Planish]]'' and ''[[Dodsworth (novel)|Dodsworth]]''.

Lewis continued his success in the 1920s with ''[[Arrowsmith (novel)|Arrowsmith]]'' (1925), a novel about the challenges faced by an idealistic doctor. It was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction|Pulitzer Prize]], which Lewis declined,<ref>[http://english.illinoisstate.edu/sinclairlewis/sinclair_lewis/faq/faq2.shtml The Sinclair Lewis Society, FAQ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410044112/https://english.illinoisstate.edu/sinclairlewis/sinclair_lewis/faq/faq2.shtml |date=April 10, 2021 }} Accessed September 15, 2013.</ref> still upset that ''Main Street'' had not won the prize.<ref name="mcdowell19840511">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/books/publishing-pulitzer-controversies.html |title=Publishing: Pulitzer Controversies |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |date=May 11, 1984 |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 15, 2018 }}</ref> It was adapted as a 1931 [[Arrowsmith (film)|Hollywood film]] directed by [[John Ford]] and starring [[Ronald Colman]] which was nominated for four [[Academy Award]]s.

Next Lewis published ''[[Elmer Gantry]]'' (1927), which depicted an [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] minister as deeply hypocritical. The novel was denounced by many religious leaders and banned in some U.S. cities. It was [[Elmer Gantry (film)|adapted for the screen]] more than a generation later as the basis of the 1960 movie starring [[Burt Lancaster]], who earned a [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] Oscar for his performance in the title role. The film won two more awards as well.

Lewis next published ''[[Dodsworth (novel)|Dodsworth]]'' (1929), a novel about the most affluent and successful members of American society. He portrayed them as leading essentially pointless lives in spite of great wealth and advantages. The book was adapted for the [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] stage in 1934 by [[Sidney Howard]], who also wrote the screenplay for the [[Dodsworth (film)|1936 film version]] directed by [[William Wyler]], which was a great success at the time. The film is still highly regarded; in 1990, it was selected for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]], and in 2005 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine named it one of the "100 Best Movies" of the past 80 years.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100312060409/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953094_1953143_1953461,00.html "''Dodsworth'' (1936)"], ''Time'', February 12, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2010.</ref>

During the late 1920s and 1930s, Lewis wrote many short stories for a variety of magazines and publications. "[[Little Bear Bongo]]" (1930) is a tale about a bear cub who wants to escape the circus in search of a better life in the real world, first published in ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' magazine.<ref>[http://toonopedia.com/bongo-b.htm Bongo Bear] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20150307142236/http://toonopedia.com/bongo-b.htm Archived] from the original on March 6, 2015.</ref><ref>[http://www.pwpl.org/collections/sinclairlewis/manuscripts/ "Miscellania"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022063148/http://www.pwpl.org/collections/sinclairlewis/manuscripts/ |date=October 22, 2010 }}, ''Sinclair Lewis Manuscripts'', Port Washington Public Library. Retrieved June 30, 2010.</ref> The story was acquired by [[Walt Disney Pictures]] in 1940 for a possible feature film. World War II sidetracked those plans until 1947. Disney used the story (now titled "Bongo") as part of its feature ''[[Fun and Fancy Free]]''.

===Nobel Prize===
In 1930 Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first writer from the United States to receive the award, after he had been nominated by [[Henrik Schück]], member of the [[Swedish Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=7820|title=Nomination Database|website=Nobelprize.org|access-date=October 13, 2017}}</ref> In the academy's presentation speech, special attention was paid to ''Babbitt''. In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised [[Theodore Dreiser]], [[Willa Cather]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], and other contemporaries, but also lamented that "in America most of us—not readers alone, but even writers—are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues," and that America is "the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today." He also offered a profound criticism of the American literary establishment: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1930/lewis-lecture.html|title=Nobel Lecture: The American Fear of Literature|last=Lewis|first=Sinclair|date=December 12, 1930|website=Nobelprize.org|access-date=March 21, 2018}}</ref>