Sinclair Lewis: An American Life

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1961. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. 5x6x2. First edition. Jacket edges rubbed with some small chips and small tears, top edge lightly foxed. 1961 Hard Cover. xxiii, 867 pp. A monumental study of one of the most famous authors in the 20th century by one of the most distinguished literary men of America today, Sinclair Lewis: An American Life will stand for years to come in the select company of definitive American biographies. As described by Mark Schorer, the book is 'a detailed account of Sinclair Lewis' life, from birth to death, a life lived in many places and full of constant peregrination. It was in many ways a disastrous life, full of sordid horror, and the book does not gloss over that. It was also, in many ways, a life full of comedy and buffoonery, and these too find their place in the text. The approach of the book is not literary or critical; it treats Lewis' books & other writings chiefly as events in his life, and events that helped to form his character. The tone is casual and personal, perhaps slightly ironical. The book attempts to locate Lewis in the American literary scene, contrasting and comparing him with his contemporaries, chiefly people whom he actually knew. Lewis is a prime example of that characteristic phenomenon of American literature--the man who enjoys a tremendous and rather early success and then suffers through a long period of decline and deterioration.