Literature · Media · 1885–1951
Born: 7 February 1885 · Died: 10 January 1951 · Age at death: 65
Sinclair Lewis died aged 65. He was born on 7 February 1885 and died on 10 January 1951.
American satirist of Main Street, Babbitt and Elmer Gantry, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Did you know?He declined the Pulitzer Prize because he felt the award's criteria were too restrictive for literature.
Sinclair Lewis held up a mirror to small-town America. He grew up in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the model for the town in Main Street. That novel mocked smug, narrow Midwestern life and became a bestseller. Babbitt gave the English language a word for a conformist businessman. Arrowsmith, about a dedicated doctor, won the Pulitzer Prize, which he refused. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His novel It Can't Happen Here warned that fascism could come to America.
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright.
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Profile
American novelist, 1885–1951
Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, on 7 February 1885.
Main Street appeared in 1920.
Babbitt followed in 1922.
He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930.
Career highlights
Did you know?He turned down the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith.
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