Who was Sinclair Lewis?
Sinclair Lewis was a Minnesota-born writer who became very popular in the 1920s. Lewis traveled widely throughout his life, never settling in any one place for more than a few years. He earned the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith, but declined to accept the prize on principle. It was given to the American novel that best presents “the wholesome atmosphere of American life, and the highest standards of American manners and manhood.” Lewis believed it should be rewarded on literary merit only. Later, he became the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Lewis was plagued with alcoholism for much of his adult life. He traveled to Maine several times, spending the summer of 1920 at the Kennebago Lake House in western Maine, just before writing Babbitt. Later, he returned to act in theatres in Ogunquit and Skowhegan. Politically, Lewis was aligned with socialist and anarchist thinkers, and he supported the labor movement. Babbitt, published in 1922, sold 141,000
