Book Description
A study of the literary career of Sinclair Lewis during the period of his greatest achievement, the 1920s.

"This new book is a triumph of scholarship. It will become an essential tool for subsequent studies of individual novels insofar as it reveals the designing-and-shaping work behind so many of them. The new reasonable view it provides of Lewis's craft and character is welcome for its own sake and for the stimulus it will give to further thinking. The book is also very readable—a real virtue, for a scholarly book, that Lewis himself would appreciate."—The Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter

"In his study of Sinclair Lewis's most prepotent novels James Hutchisson has swept away the cobwebs of neglect from the reputation of a great American writer, whose acute and indelible portraits of America—its towns, cities and social topography—constructed a mirror that changed the way we see ourselves.In lucid prose Hutchisson recounts the fascinating stories of the writing of these novels, reveals the author at work and the private person and shows the passion and craftsmanship he poured into his books.Now we have a clearer understanding of the sources of Sinclair Lewis's talent and of the literary significance of his volatile blend of satire and realism, caricature and truth."—Richard Lingeman, author of Small Town America

"Not only is this study impeccably researched and well-written, not only does it bring forth a substantial amount of new material on Lewis's career, but its publication could not come at a better time. The book should enjoy a considerable audience among those who are committed to a reexamination of the canon."—Robert E. Fleming, University of New Mexico

The best-selling novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry debunked cherished American myths, among them small-town life, business and boosterism, the medical profession, and evangelical religion. Their creator, Sinclair Lewis, was perhaps the most sharp-eyed analyst of the American scene during the 1920s. Lewis's phenomenal rise to literary and cultural prominence is one of the most unusual success stories in American literary history, yet it has never been fully told. Was his success merely a fortuitous combination of pluck and timing, or was Lewis a self-conscious stylist with a keen eye for the demands of the literary marketplace?

This study examines the making of these novels—their sources, composition, publication, and subsequent critical reception. Drawing on thousands of pages of material from Lewis's notes, outlines, and drafts—most of it never before published—James M. Hutchisson shows how Lewis selected usable materials and shaped them, through his unique vision, into novels that reached and remained part of the American literary imagination. By examining Lewis's typescript revisions, Hutchisson sheds much light on the complex aesthetic matrix that Lewis tried to present in his novels, for he wanted to be recognized both as an acerbic social satirist and as a legitimate artist. Hutchisson also describes for the first time how large a role was played by Lewis's wives, assistants, and publishers in determining the final shape of his books. ... Read more

Book Description
Though Sinclair Lewis was a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Bloom suggests that his reputation declined in the latter half of the 20th century. However, Arrowsmith is still widely read, and Bloom argues that Babbit and Dodsworth deserve larger audiences.

This title, Sinclair Lewis, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Sinclair Lewis through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Sinclair Lewis, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

In 1915 women had few resources for rising above menial office work
In ten years, 1905 - 1915, Miss Una Goldman, heroine of Sinclair Lewis's 1917 novel THE JOB, moves from24 year old economic nobody in backwater Panama, Pennsylvania to success in business at age 34 in cutthroat New York City.She is not pretty, not well educated. How then does she rise in a man's world?

First, she is friendly and makes enough affable acquaintances and a few friends (increasinglythey are women) that she creates a booster or referral network which she can call on and does call on. Networking, beginning with contacts in a New York City commercial school, from time to time help her find a better job: first just stenographic, then secretarial and lightly supervisory and finally with real responsibility for selling real estate. On her own she markets herself to her final employer who takes her into his recently formed and expanding chain of hotels as a manager of several departments.

Along the way Una Golden forms a crush on a man who leaves New York for a better job in Omaha. She later marries unsuitably an alcoholic womanizer much older than she. Him she dumps eventually as he becomes more and more a lazy sponger. In the end she is reunited, most implausibly, at age 34 with her first love and the implication is that they will marry, have children and both continue to work -- something her old fashioned husband forbade Una to do once he was back on his feet economically.

Unlike ELMER GANTRY or THE GOD SEEKER, Sinclair Lewis's THE JOB is relentlessly, single-mindedly, depressingly secular and this worldly. Here are some of the very few references of any kind to organized religion.

Of Una's father just before he dies at novel's beginning:"He believed that all Parisians, artists, millionaires, and socialists were immoral. His entire system of theology was comprised in the Bible, which he never read, and the Methodist Church, which he rarely attended; and he desired no system of economics beyond the current platform of the Republican party." ( Ch. I).

On their first dinner date, Una's first boyfriend (who returns in triumph at novel's end) asks "Which god do you favor at present -- Unitarian or Catholic or Christian Science or Seventh-Day Advent?" Una thought that they all worshipped the same God. He says that the same God can't both approve candles and music in an Episcopal Church and reveal to the Plymouth Brotherhood the wickedness of organs and candles." Una agrees that she really does not care which church is right. He goes on to say that church buildings are touted as God's houses but are allowed by congregants to be ugly. But he admits that his real thoughts about almost anything are critical and negative. End of discussion. (Ch V)

Another suitor spoke with Una after "(s)he had been to church; had confessed indeterminate sins to a formless and unresponsive deity. She felt righteous and showed it." (Ch. IX)

Una moved into a rather posh and nominally strict boarding house for working women that as a matter of policy admitted "East Side Jews" but "no agnostics or Catholics." Yet Una's roommate, a Roman Catholic, had got away with telling the landlady that she was a "Romanist Episcopalian." Una's encounters with Jewish men and women in various levels of New York business were invariably friendly and productive. Decisively helpful later in Una's business rise was her lame Jewish boarding housemate Miss Mamie Magen, who was brilliant and increasingly well connected in charitable circles. (Ch. XI) Mamie was scornful of "half-churches, half-governments, half-educations." Mamie explained New York to Una, brought the metropolis to life. Thanks to Mamie Magen, Una found a two week temporary job with thejobbing firm of Herzfeld and Cohn, two white-bearded Orthodox Jews. Una had had nebulous prejudices of the Jews thenbeginning to conquer New York business. Yet the two partners had merry eyes, gestures of sympathy and created a pleasant, companionable office environment. They were not tyrants but patriarchs, elder workers. They made their office "a joyous adventure." Una looked forward each day to her work and learned lessons she would later apply elsewhere about how to humanize the work place. (Ch. XIV) In her next to last office, the dynamic Jewish partner in a real estate office proposed marriage, but Una merely admired him, did not love him. (Ch. XVI)

With her Catholic roommate Una "attended High Mass at the Spanish church on Washington Heights ... ; felt the beauty of the ceremony; admired the simple, classic church; adored the padre; and for about one day planned to scorn Panama Methodism and become a Catholic, after which day she forgot about Methodism and Catholicism." (Ch. XII) In the first two years of her marriage, Una's salesman husband was out of town 2/3 of the time and she herself did not work. To keep her shorthand alive, she took down "the miscellaneous sermons -- by Baptists, Catholics, Reformed rabbis, Christian scientists, theosophists, High Church Episcopalians, Hindu yogis, or anyone else handy -- with which she filled up her dull Sundays. ... Except as practice in stenography she found their conflicting religions of little value to lighten her life. The ministers seemed so much vaguer than the hard-driving business men with whom she had worked; and the question of what Joshua had done seemed to have little relation to what Julius Schwirtz (her husband) was likely to do. The city had come between her and the Panama belief that somehow, mysteriously, one acquired virtue by enduring dull sermons." (Ch. XVI)

In THE JOB Sinclair Lewis shows little belief in religion as able to uplift and change lives of his characters. And those lives emphatically need uplifting from the relentlessly dull, stressful, slave-like conditions most women face in their low-paying office jobs. Sinclair Lewis's women generally see only two ways out of having to work: to marry or to die in harness. A few women such as Una Golden and Mamie Magen break out of their pre-ordained ruts and create a third possibility: doing better work than their men colleagues and convincing progressive bosses to give them a chance to prove themselves.

-OOO-

of some interest, perhaps
I found this to be somewhat inferior to his other early novels (i.e., before Main Street). He is more slick in that professional writer's way here; I like him better when he was willing to take some stylistic risks;but nothing like that happens here. Main Street may not be a masterpiece,but it is certainly more interesting and unusual than this one.

Decent account of Women in the workplace.
Sinclair's first critically successful work has similar soundings to MainStreet and Ann Vickers.The novel describes the adventures of Una Goldenas she learns to survive the daily grind of working for a living in deadend jobs.

Lewis vividly describes the dullness and hopelessnesssurrounding typical "women's work" in the early 1900's.Lewisalso shows that marrying can also be a dead end in itself, especially whenone marries to simply escape working.

I liked this book quite a bit. However, it lacked the bite and suspense of Ann Vickers or even MainStreet.This book should be read by Lewis fans or those with an interestin the early 20th century workplace. ... Read more

Amazon.com
As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to draw upon for Arrowsmith.Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher. Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life.Book Description
Written at the height of his powers in the 1920s, the three novels in this volume continue the vigorous unmasking of American middle-class life begun by Sinclair Lewis in Main Street and Babbitt. In Arrowsmith (1925) Lewis portrays the medical career of Martin Arrowsmith, a physician who finds his commitment to the ideals of his profession tested by the cynicism and opportunism he encounters in private practice, public health work, and scientific research. The novel reaches its climax as its hero faces his greatest challenges amid a deadly outbreak of plague on a Caribbean island.

Elmer Gantry (1927) aroused intense controversy with its brutal depiction of a hypocritical preacher in relentless pursuit of worldly pleasure and power. Through his satiric exposé of American religion, Lewis captured the growing cultural and political tension in the 1920s between the forces of secularism and fundamentalism.

Dodsworth (1929) follows Sam Dodsworth, a wealthy, retired Midwestern automobile manufacturer, as he travels through Europe with his increasingly restless wife, Fran. The novel intimately explores the unraveling of their marriage, while pitting the proud heritage of European culture against the rude vigor of American commercialism.Download Description
This concise supplement to Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith helps students understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Arrowsmith hits the mark
I picked up this book by chance in an airport bookstore. After reading the first section about Arrowsmith's great-grandmother and her determination to go west, I was hooked. The writing is crisp, the satire is sharp, and the characters are as alive as any on paper. Martin Arrowsmith has his weaknesses and waverings, but his resolute pursuit of his goals is inspiring; like his wife Leora, you're willing to follow him anywhere. This novel will be particularly interesting to those in the fields of science and medicine. But, to quote Martin, if you have ever wanted to be "anything but a machine for digestion and propagation and obedience," you will find something in his character and adventures that will push you to live with greater purpose.

Must read for anyone who aspires to become something in life!
Great story of young idealism and enthusiasm in struggle with bigotry, backwardness. Despite being set in its time and social circumstances, remains timeless. Highly recommended for those who aspire to become doctors, especially for those choosing academic and scientific careers. For others it is lasting reminder that to achieve something great in life one has to pay the price, that there are not only rewards.

worth reading
I'm surprised to see so many less than stellar reviews of this book, because I really enjoyed it.Those who like tales of the early discoveries in classical microbiology, told with excitement as in Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, will find plenty to love in these albeit fictional chapters.While the story can really get you excited about science, it also shows that, no matter how well-intentioned and important one's work may be, there can be exorbitant costs associated with too much passion for it.Good lessons for anyone contemplating in a career in science, which can easily consume too much of one's life, in my opinion.Beyond this, I throroghly enjoyed the characters, humor and description of the places and times.This is a book that is well worth reading.

An endless zigzag
Sinclair Lewis defines Martin Arrowsmith as `a young man who was in no degree a hero, who regarded himself as a seeker of truth, yet who stumbled and slid back all his life and bogged in every obvious morass.' He is `a snuffing beagle', who in his lifespan covered in this book never was in control of his destiny.

This book touches all kind of important themes:
- Commercialism and the religion of a scientist: `Knowledge is the greatest thing in the medical world, but it's no good whatever if you can't sell it.'
- Commercialism and profession: `Explain to a patient, also his stricken and anxious family, the hard work and thought you are giving to his case, and so make him feel that the good you have done to him, is even greater than the fee you plan to charge.'
- Public v. private health system: `to get rid of avoidable diseases and produce a healthy population is killing commercialization, making money. Therefore doctors must become public health officers.'
- Psycho-analysts as guess-scientists.
- General human problems: `the cruelty of nature kicking human beings by every gay device of moonlight and white limbs into heaving babies.
- Influence of the Church on the irrationality of the masses. Its battle against free-thinking.
- Personal problems: alcoholism, marriage.
None of these themes is properly developed.

The scientific basis of this book is very poor: fighting the plague with bacteriophages.
Into the bargain, there is virtually no plot: the human relations with friends, colleagues, professors or women are more or less accidental. Also, after a far too long itinerary, the story ends abruptly.

This book is a big disappointment and can only be recommended to Sinclair Lewis fans.

At last: Sinclair Lewis writes a hero
Sinclair Lewis is the bookend to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both were born in Minnesota. Fitzgerald went to Princeton, Lewis to Yale. Both wrote their best books in the 1920s. Both drank, had women trouble, and turned bitter.

But Fitzgerald is everyone's favorite author --- even the high school kids who are clueless about metaphors swoon over "The Great Gatsby." You need an appreciation of satire to love Lewis; nobody does, and he goes unread.

It's understandable. What would you rather read --- a romantic tale about a poor boy's rise and violent death on the glittering shores of Long Island (Gatsby) or a withering take on narrow-minded life in the midwest (Main Street)? Who's more interesting --- a criminal who went to Oxford (Jay Gatsby) or a blowhard whose ambition is total conformity to soul-deadening values (George Babbitt)?

And yet. If you ask who describes America better, the more necessary writer is Sinclair Lewis. Main Street and Babbitt made his name, and most readers stop there. They shouldn't --- my wife, who once attended a one-room schoolhouse in Minnesota --- recently read "Main Street," and found it a very close description of life in our chic Manhattan neighborhood. Dodsworth --- later made into a toweringly great movie --- is as fine a love story as Fitzgerald ever dreamed up, and a lot more realistic one, at that. It Can't Happen Here is a powerful political drama with a subject that's not as far-fetched as you might think: how fascism comes to America.

And then there's Arrowsmith, which has an actual hero. Set in the midwest, it doesn't lack for satire; as Lewis depicts it, happiness in a small town seems to havbe the shelf life of about a year. And for a writer who won the Pulitzer Prize (and refused it), Lewis can write some dreadful dialogue. But the heroism thing --- that's compelling, and if you can move sprightly through the first half of the book, you'll find yourself getting excited and turning pages quickly for the right reason.

The hero is Martin Arrowsmith.We meet him in 1897, in the midwest town of Elk Mills ("a dowdy red-brick village, smelling of apples"), where he is the 14-year-old helper of the local doctor. Martin is prone to hero worship --- he sees magic in the old man's love of puttering in a lab. That ignites a dream in Martin, and so, seven years later, he's in medical school. There he falls under the spell of bacteriology professor Max Gottlieb: "tall, lean, aloof" --- and a Jew.

Gottlieb's love of science is pure; in an environment where many students and faculty think only of money, he alone seems to have ideals. Martin blossoms. But he's still a rube. He falls for a snooty graduate student in English and proposes marriage; later, he meets Leora, a nursing student, and proposes to her as well. His inept solution: to bring them together over lunch. Leora loves him more. They marry.

Leora's family is important --- in their tiny town of Wheatsylvania, North Dakota. But don't call them cultured: They lived in a house "that has a large phonograph but no books." Money talks, though. They bankroll Martin's first practice, and he settles into the life of a country doctor.

The novel is about the impossibility of "settling" --- as Martin climbs the medical ladder, he can't ignore research, his first love. He has a knack for it, and, to his delight, he's invited to join Gottlieb at a prestigious New York research institute. And now the novel kicks into high gear --- the plague has broken out in the Caribbean, and the vaccine that Arrowsmith has been working on might just be the cure.

Let me not spoil the thrill of these pages by revealing too much. Let's just say: success always comes at a price. And success doesn't always bring people what they most want. "Arrowsmith" is a book about the forces that fight to dominate us. As Lewis has it, that fight never ends.

"Arrowsmith" is smart about the world of research, and drug companies, and the modest ambitions of many men and women in white coats. It is also about the love of knowledge and the desire to heal; it gets the blood pumping. My brother --- one of our best AIDS researchers --- tells me that "Arrowsmith" is the book that made him decide to study medicine. Long before page 450, I could see why. ... Read more

Book Description
An assessment of the American Nobel Laureate whose work uncovered America for readers the world over. ... Read more