Sinclair Lewis: American Author Challenge

"Born on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Sinclair Lewis studied at Yale University and worked as a newspaper journalist before becoming an acclaimed novelist. Known for his satirical take on modern affairs, some of his well-known releases included Main Street, Arrowsmith, Babbitt and Dodsworth. In 1930, he became the first U.S. writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Lewis died on January 10, 1951 in Rome, Italy."

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2015. This author will be read in May. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185195

I have only read Main Street and that was at least 10-15 years ago. I do remember loving it, though. I plan on reading Babbitt.

What is everyone else reading?

I am reading Main Street.

Might join in. Have a paperback copy of Dodsworth, which I read long ago and remember liking a great deal. And I have a copy of Elmer Gantry, just like the edition pictured above. (Also a matching edition of Main Street, which I read for the first time in February.) I'll take Dodsworth for $500, Mark.

I intend to read Dodsworth, in the nifty small format Modern Library edition from 1947. My April intentions are about to do me in, though, so I'm crossing my fingers as I make this statement.

>4 luvamystery65: Good choice, Ro!

>5 weird_O: Nice to see you join us. Is this your first AAC?

I have not read Dodsworth but I remember loving the old film, with Walter Huston. Have you seen it?

>6 laytonwoman3rd: Go, Linda! Go Linda!

I'll be reading Babbitt.

I chose Main Street. I've got a copy downloaded from the library to my iPad.

I have It Can't Happen Here on hold from the library so hopefully it will become available soon.

Hoping to get to Main Street. Until now, the only Sinclair Lewis I've read was Babbitt.

I'm planning to read Main Street. It'll be my first time reading Lewis.

I'll be reading Main Street. It's my first time reading Lewis.

I'm currently reading Main Street.

At a beer-filled moment in a bar at a Librarything meet-up I promised Kerri and Ellen I'd read Babbitt. I may accompany the reading with an ale or two.

I'll be listening to Main Street, which I've requested through InterLibrary Loan. Due to its length, I hope it comes soon!

>7 msf59: I guess this is my first AAC. Does it involve anything more than reading a book written by a designated American writer? That I can do.

As far as Dodsworth goes, I believe I have seen the movie version.

I've read both Main Street and Babbitt - and appreciated both. I was planning on sitting this one out but now I'm thinking...hmmmm maybe I will...

I'm joining in with Main Street as well. I have read it before, in high school, about a million years ago. I'm looking forward to the re-read.

Karen O.

It's Babbit for me, although I also own a copy of Main Street for backup. This will be my first experience with Mr. Lewis. I hope we get along!

I have really enjoyed what I have read of Sinclair Lewis. I have read Cass Timberlane and Main Street. He is another writer whose works have remained eerily applicable to the modern day. I hope to read something off my shelf by him this month.

My choice is Elmer Gantry, because that's the only one of his on audiobook at my library.

I'll read Arrowsmith, which I've been meaning to get to for years.

I've got Main Street on tap but first I need to finish my April AACII book. Egads, I'm getting way behind :0(

Ooh, lots of Lewis activity. Looking forward to everyone's thoughts. I think I enjoy the AAC best, when people are reading several different titles, by that author. It gives us a great snapshot.

I am not sure if I will be joining in this month. I may squeak a book in near the end of the month. I have never read any of Sinclair Lewis' books so I am looking forward to reading everyone's comments.

>15 jnwelch: Yep, I'll be reading Babbitt, as well, and I give myself permission to imbibe while reading. :-)

>27 EBT1002: Ha! Good to have the company, Ellen.

I will be reading Babbitt. I'm not 100% sure that Main street wouldn't have been a better choice, but I've got Babbit sitting on the shelf.

Babitt is the one I've chosen. Never read any Lewis before.

I have previously read Main Street and Babbitt and I much preferred the latter. It will either be Arrowsmith or It Can't Happen Here for me.

I got partway through Main Street several years ago but never finished it. I'll see if it works better for me this time around.

I've got way too much on my imaginary bookplate for May so I better get started on Sinclair Lewis. I dove in to Kingsblood Royal. I seem to have stumbled into a bloody royal satire in the extreme.

I've finished Main Street. My thoughts can be found here.

I'm working on Babbitt, although my reading time has been curtailed over the past week or so. I hope to get well through it this weekend, though.

Funny story: I chose Babbitt because I thought I had already read Main Street, but now I realize that what I've read was Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. All those early 20th century books about Midwestern small towns seem to run together in my mind.

All those early 20th century books about Midwestern small towns seem to run together in my mind. I get that!

So far I'm liking Babbitt much more than I expected. Fingers crossed.

>35 rosalita: Is Winesburg, Ohio worth the read, Julia?

>37 jnwelch: I think so? It's been a while (and clearly I couldn't even remember which book I'd actually read) but I don't remember hating it. So it's got that going for it, which is nice.

:-)

>38 rosalita: OK, thanks, Julia. All those early 20th century books seem to run together in my mind (can't remember where I've heard that before!), so I thought, if I'm liking Babbitt, maybe I'd also like that Sherwood Anderson book I've been avoiding.

Yes, I think that's a good bet!

>40 rosalita: :-)

>39 jnwelch: Joe, I recall that Winesburg, Ohio is a aggregation of short stories, all taking place in the same town, each focusing on a particular resident of the town. Similar to Updike's Beck: a Book and Too Far to Go: The Maples Stories.

Finished Dodsworth last night! Great book, not resolved until the second to last page. Tell you more later.

>42 weird_O: Thanks, w_O. I haven't read the Updike books, but I plan to give Wineburg, Ohio a go at some point.

#43 Okay - that's it. I will have to read it. I've been dithering - then the version that I had keeps crashing my e-reader software so I dithered further. But I will ditch it, get a new one and get going :)

I will start Babbitt today!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Lewis selection.

Dodsworth is fun so far - Lewis has a very easy style to read.

>47 BekkaJo: I just finished Dodsworth a few days ago. I knew I read it before--and liked it--but it wasn't until I was 50 or 60 pages in that I discovered underlining and notes that revealed my first read having been in college.

I'm collecting thoughts to post here.

My copy of It Can't Happen Here seems to be taking its sweet time so I'm probably just going to pick up a copy of either Babbitt or Main Street instead since those are available now.

I'm listening to the audio of Babbitt, read by Grove Gardner, and enjoying it *very* much. I wasn't sure about this one and had planned to read Main Street but with the month ticking away from me, I decided to give an audio a try. Babbitt was the only one my library had...

I'm finding Babbitt incredibly boring, but am determined to finish it.

^I thought I'd find Babbitt incredibly boring, but surprisingly, I haven't. Nearing the end now.

>51 LoisB:, 52 There was a lot of repetition in Babbitt to drive home the point that George Babbitt, like many people on the road to success/power, was a conformist and opportunist who got his reward from the approval of others like him. I finished it last night. It's a book that will stay with me…

Here are the comments I made on my thread:

George F. Babbit would be called a good ol' boy in the South, but as one of the premier citizens of a Northern city called Zenith, he is more of a man about town "doing the best things so conservatively". That is, until his only true friend suffers a crisis in his life and causes George to rethink his existence. George is a social climber and a people pleaser. The book is a satire about the American businessman in the time after WWI and before the crash on Wall Street, but if the slang and outward accouterments were updated, many things remain the same. There is still that need to succeed and the accompanying spiritual emptiness that results when one becomes a slave to power.

This book made such an impression when it was published in 1922 that the name of the main character became a part of the English language:

"Babbitt -- a person (as a business or professional man) who conforms unthinkingly and complacently in prevailing middle-class standards of respectability, who makes a cult of material success, and who is contemptuous of or incapable of appreciating artistic or intellectual values." ~ from Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language ~

>53 Donna828: I like those comments, Donna. The definition is a little unfair to George, isn't it? He didn't conform unthinkingly - he longed to flee with his fairy girl.

>53 Donna828: Thanks for sharing your comments. I WILL get back to finishing Babbitt!

…

Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis

Dodsworth is generally viewed as focussing on differences between American and European culture, intellect, manners, and morals. But it depicts the long, slow collapse of a seemingly solid marriage between two accomplished and loving individuals.

The surface story is straightforward. Sam Dodsworth has sold his auto manufacturing business to a larger rival. He daughter has married, his son is settled in at Yale. His wife pursuades him to take her on a long, unhurried tour of Europe. And it'll be all about her, even if he doesn't immediately grasp that. In fact, he suppresses any such notion. After all, she's his wife, and she adores him.

Sam is treated more like an indulgent father than an adored husband. It's his money that pays for the two-bedroom hotel suites Fran requires, the lavish shopping excursions she goes on, the meals and entertainments for the two of them plus the friends she makes. Though most of her 41 years have been spent in Zenith, she is convinced she understands European manners and mores. And Sam is, well, something of an embarrassment. He's a lovely man and means well, but he's uncultured and just doesn't, you know, get it.

Fairly early on, Fran's ceaseless flirting elicits a pass from an Englishman, which traumatizes her and prompts the Dodsworths to flee to Paris. There she repeats her behavior. While Sam wants to see sights and meet with active, productive, inventive people, Fran wants to be indulged by shallow, frivolous society. She needs to be the center of attention.

Her complete lack of self-awareness is revealed again and again. She insults and belittles her husband. When he returns to America for his college reunion, she sends him letters revealing—without any sense that revealing is what she's doing--that she's having an affair. And Sam suppresses his own sensibilities, remaining true, loyal, loving, indulgent, virtually to the end.

I've just started reading a massive and exhaustive bio of Lewis, and I'm stunned at how tone-deaf Lewis was as he grew up. So how did he come to see personalities and relationships so clearly? Especially in just the few years between his graduation from Yale in 1908 and the publication of Main Street in 1920.

I dunno.

But I give this novel a thumbs up.

I started reading Babbitt last evening and I am cautiously optimistic since several trusted LT buddies (Katie, Joe, Donna) have liked it more than they expected.

I've got Main Street on audio, and if I get my wish (disappearing into my sewing room) today, I will start listening.

>56 weird_O: I'm about two-thirds through Babbitt, and I'm liking it, although it's slower reading for me. Just wondering--there are some Dodsworths given a passing mention in Babbitt--are these the same as in Dodsworth?

>59 kac522: Gee, I don't know. I've read only Main Street and Dodsworth. Sam Dodsworth is the president of the Revelation Motor Car Company, and he is married to the former Frances Voelker. They have a daughter, Emily, and a son, whose name I can't locate (without the book in hand). The business is in Zenith, of course. Babbitt was published in '22, Dodsworth in '29, and I gather Lewis used Zenith in many of his novels. Wouldn't surprise me if he pulled a couple mentioned in one novel to spotlight in another.

I'm currently reading a mammoth bio of Lewis, but he's only just graduated from Yale. Hasn't written a novel yet.

>60 weird_O: Dodsworth comes up 4 times in this Project Gutenberg edition of Babbitt: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1156/1156-h/1156-h.htm

The Dodsworth family is said to be a "pioneer family" of Zenith; there's a Mona Dodsworth; and a Dodsworth Theater.

>61 kac522: Well whadda ya know. Thanks for the gutenberg link.

Here's a little something from Sinclair Lewis: An American Life by Mark Schorer. (I'm on page 207 of 814.) it's 1912; Lewis is writing his second novel, Our Mr. Wrenn, and he's sharing manuscript with friends, one of whom gives it to a publisher for whom Lewis once worked, Frederick Stokes.

...Stokes returned it, saying that he hated to see a young man waste his time. "You're not cut out for a writer," he said, "and that's all there is to it. It's just not your game, and if I were you, I'd forget all about it."

Boy, that Stokes. He's got an eye for talent. :-)

I finally finished Babbitt! I don't know why it was such a struggle, but I had to push myself to finish it, just to keep my purist record intact.

>63 LoisB: Lois, I had a hard time finishing Babbitt, too. I didn't dislike the book, but it didn't seem to keep me turning pages. I thought Lewis had lots of interesting observations on American life in the 1920s, but the plot and flow of the book weren't smooth. I'm not sorry I read it, but it took much longer than I expected.

I finally finished Main Street. I was interested enough in it to keep reading, but I can't say that I much liked it. I don't think I'll be reading any more of his works.

>60 weird_O: I just started Dodsworth this afternoon. The son's name is Brent, but he hasn't appeared yet...just been mentioned.

I'm going to probably break the month's boundary with Lewis. I got Babbit out of the library, but got distracted by other things.

>64 kac522: Well said! I agree.

Whew! Finally reached a milestone a few minutes ago. I finished page 407 in Mark Schorer's bio of Sinclair Lewis. I'm half way through! Good Lord, he certainly did dine a lot, travel a lot, drink a lot (even in the midst of Prohibition). Schorer documents damn near every toast.

I enjoyed Babbitt much more than I expected. My short review is on the book page and here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/191024#5167537

I've finished Main Street. Didn't Carol just drive me nuts!

I've decided to shelve Dodsworth after 10 chapters (about 80 pages). I see the "point", and perhaps in other hands I could enjoy watching it being developed fully with these very characters. I just find Lewis's style heavy-handed, awkward and tedious.

I have just finished a collection of short fiction and essays by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who lost the Pulitzer Prize to Lewis in 1926. Her earlier novel, The Brimming Cup, was offered by a contemporary critic as an "antidote" to Sinclair Lewis's Main Street. Her work may be a little hard to find, but I think it's being revived, and rightly so. Some may recognize her as the author of the children's book, Understood Betsy. Perhaps she might be a name to consider for a future AAC.

I'm not sure I'm going to bother with Babbit. The fact that June holds the pleasures of Stegner is certainly part of the reason. I can't decide whether to read one of his books I have not yet read, first. Or to dive head first into my first re-read of The Angle of Repose.

Halfway with Dodsworth and going to roll it to next month - agreeing with Laytonwoman #72. It is hard going in places. it sort of gets going and I'm barrelling along and then it gets terribly slow again... sigh.

The comments on Main Street and Babbitt are pretty much what I thought Sinclair Lewis would be like, but I recently read Elmer Gantry and didn't find it boring at all. Maybe it was because I'm interested in religious shysters, but I'd recommend giving it a try some time if you still think Lewis might hold some interest.

#74 Apropos of that, I managed to squeak it in. Barrelled through the last 150 pages today. And actually ended up enjoying it immensely.

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis finally arrived from the library Saturday and I stayed up late last night finishing it. At first it felt like a duty-read, but by the time I finished I was glad I had read it.

Well, I finished Main Street. Better late than never!

For my own self, I feel the need to post a link to my report on Sinclair Lewis: An American Life by Mark Schorer. I finished this long, long biography June 5, but could not get a report written. But it's done now and posted on my 75 Books Challenge thread.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/189318#5214787

Here's a link to a report on Dorothy and Red by Vincent Sheean. It is a worthy read, a memoir of their marriage.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/189318#5217238