Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street [Paperback]

Richard Lingeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2005

In this definitive biography of Sinclair Lewis (Main Street, Babbitt), Lingeman presents an empathetic, absorbing, and balanced portrait of an eccentric alcoholic-workaholic whose novels and stories exploded shibboleths with a volatile mixture of caricature and realism. Drawing on newly uncovered correspondence, diaries, and criticism, Lingeman gives new life to this prairie Mercutio out of Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) lived in an era of American literary giants: there was Dreiser (whose life Lingeman has also written), James, Wharton and Hemingway, just to name a few. But Lewis himself is remembered as an author of middling distinction who achieved celebrity with pointed satires of American mores, particularly in Main Street, Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Lingeman's absorbing biography, however, makes critics's offhand treatment of Lewis seem misplaced. A brash Midwesterner with a mile-wide goofball streak, Lewis turns out to have lived loudly, expansively and generously far from the dour personality one might expect of a satirist. Possessed of limitless energy and generally pragmatic about hackwork, he poured forth reams of print all his life. His quest for a true American realism was earnest though not always successful. At his best, as in Main Street, he provided razor-sharp criticism of a nation greatly in need of self-caricature. He turned down a Pulitzer Prize and accepted a Nobel. He exasperated his two wives, explored radical politics without committing himself and was felled by alcoholism; Lewis's story in these respects shares much with that of other writers. Lingeman, a senior editor at the Nation, succeeds in capturing the giddy, forward progression of Lewis's life, full of obsessions and accidents; it's only at the end that one realizes that one has finished a tragedy. Although relatively few readers may set out to read a life of Sinclair Lewis, this well-crafted biography holds many rewards for those who find it. Agent, Virginia Barber. (On-sale: Jan. 15)Forecast: Thanks to the reputation Lingeman established with his acclaimed life of Dreiser, this will receive widespread review attention, which may draw more than the usual number of readers for a literary bio.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Having assayed a two-volume biography of Theodore Dreiser, Nation contributor Lingeman turns his attention to America's first Nobel prize winner.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Borealis Books (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873515412
• ISBN-13: 978-0873515412
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enjoyable, August 7, 2002

By 

Michael S. Goldfarb (Verplanck, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street (Hardcover)

Okay, I haven't read Mark Schorer's earlier biography, but I have read a number of other critical works about Lewis over the years, and more than half of Lewis' twenty-odd novels.

I found this book fascinating and insightful, and I was moved by Lingeman's final argument - that the time is ripe for a rediscovery of Lewis, that the "license to consider Lewis an irrelevant hack" that Schorer's book had conferred on the academic world is expired. I think it's criminal that Lewis is hardly even read in colleges today, while Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Cather, Faulkner, Steinbeck, etc., are still read and discussed in detail. (Nothing against these great writers, all of whom I've read extensively, but Lewis was there first and made all their paths to brilliance easier.)

As long as America is still loaded with familiar George Babbitts, Elmer Gantrys, Sam Dodsworths, Carol Kennicotts, etc., Lewis will be a classic (if not THE classic) American novelist. And Lingeman's biography presents a revealing picture of the unique, angry, ultimately lonely man behind these characters.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable, very informative, February 5, 2002

By 

Gretchen Laskas "Author" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street (Hardcover)

I had high hopes for this book before I started, and then had the rare pleasure of having those hopes surpassed. In this immensely readable biography, Lingeman brings us the Sinclair Lewis we have always wanted to admire, but perhaps never dared: the flawed, brash, idealistic cynic that put on the page a world as American as he was. Over and over I was struck by how relevent the world of Lewis was, and how like our own it continues to be.

Neither heavily academic, nor breezy and light, this biography does exactly what it is supposed to do -- shines light upon a writer we remember, but never really knew.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Justice, June 27, 2003

By 

Mary Philipsek "Reynold" (Eden Prairie, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street (Hardcover)

Schorer's 1961 biography of Lewis, while well researched, came off as particularly mean-spirited. I could never understand why a biographer would take on the huge task of an exhaustive biography when they seem to distain it's subject so much.
Finally Mr. Lingeman has given us a more even handed look at one of America's most neglected authors. Perhaps it was the great popularity of Lewis during the 1920's that brought about a more recent reaction against him but it seems that the time is ripe for another look at this most American of American authors and the Lingeman book makes that clear. This biography is clearly as in depth as Schorer's but, fortunately, does not have some strange axe to grind. Besides, the life of Sinclair Lewis makes for some interesting reading when it is put forth honestly.