Customer Reviews

Sinclair Lewis (University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers Number. 27)

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This biography may still be regarded as the standard reference work on Sinclair Lewis, the first American novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Although the book is packed with details, it is not entirely devoid of problems.

There is a lack of perspective, possibly because the book was published within a decade of the author's death. Another factor is that the biographer genuinely seemed to dislike his subject and emphasized his decline as an important writer and his alcoholism. Schorer wrote this book at a time when the conventional wisdom held that Lewis was mediocre at best and hopelessly passe. He seldom varies from that template.

Some of the critiques of Lewis as an individual and an author are true enough, but one gets the feeling from this study that Lewis never enjoyed success, recognition or even a fleeting moment of happiness during his adult life. Thankfully, other subsequent biographers and critics have reappraised the novels of Sinclair Lewis and found that several of the titles merited praise and accolades.

It is true that Lewis never again approached the pinnacle of success that he achieved in the Twenties in the final two decades of his literary career, but how many authors could? Isn't it enough that he managed to have written five exceptional novels, "Main Street," "Babbitt," "Arrowsmith," "Elmer Gantry," and "Dodsworth," in a single decade? Lewis did produce several more bestsellers, but these books did not receive the critical acclaim that the earlier titles did.

Lewis was a keen observer of the American scene, a realist and a humorist. Thank heavens, that he chafed at the bucolic pace of life in Sauk Centre, Minnesota and set out to see the world.

Possibly the only thing worse than idolizing the subject of a biography is the sort of arrogance and patronizing attitude demonstrated by Mr. Shorer. To wit: in reference to Lewis's college English papers (p.129), "They [the papers] would not, today, lead one to think that the author could become a distinguished professor of literature or even a very good one." Spoken like the distinguished professor of literature that that he no doubt was and as he no doubt regarded as the zenith of civilization, just as Lewis' Gopher Prairie regarded itself. I just ordered the Lingeman.