Sinclair Lewis

Orphaned as a teen, Carol Milford grew up in a city in Minnesota. Already a compassionate person, Carol's time studying in college and grad school exposed her to diverse, radical ideas and lifestyles, which she learned to either accept or tolerate. After college, Carol earns a position as a librarian in the state capital city, yet finds the work to be unsatisfying. This is why she agrees when her new husband, a doctor named Will, asks if they can...

First published in 1925, Sinclair Lewis' "Arrowsmith" is the fascinating tale of a man torn between the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the demands of everyday domestic life. "Arrowsmith" was published to great critical acclaim, being awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926, and has endured as the author's most popular novel. It is the story of Martin Arrowsmith, an intelligent and scientific young man who leaves his small Midwestern hometown to attend...

Bored of the parties and luxuries that come with her socialite lifestyle, Claire Boltwood longs for something more authentic in her life. Desperate for adventure, Claire and her father decide to travel from New York City to the Pacific Northwest in their automobile, a new privilege enjoyed by the rich. Though he is a clever businessman, Claire's father knows nothing about cars, so he encourages Claire to drive, challenging the gender stereotypes of...

The Appleby's are happy couple. Often referring to the other as "father" or "mother", the couple have remained as affectionate and passionate as newlyweds, and both are energetic despite their old age. Though they feel young and full of life, their adult daughter, with whom they share a difficult relationship with, and the rest of society, hardly agrees. It is suggested that the couple consider retiring and moving to an assisted living facility. Disenfranchised...

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This early work by Sinclair Lewis was originally published in 1917 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, USA in 1885. A lonely and socially awkward child, Lewis tried unsuccessfully to run away from home, before entering Yale University in 1903. It was here that, in the Yale Courant and the Yale Literary Magazine, Lewis had his first works – mostly romantic poetry...

Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable fifty-year-old millionaire and “American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs, and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church.” Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe. He agrees for the...

"It Can't Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president...

"In Arrowsmith, Lewis portrays the medical education and career of a physician whose idealistic commitment is tested by the greed and opportunism he encounters at all levels of his profession. Elmer Gantry dramatizes the growing tension between secularism and fundamentalism in 1920s America through the portrait of a glib and self-serving preacher relentlessly pursuing worldly pleasure and power. Dodsworth depicts the unraveling marriage of an American...