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Main Street
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Main Street Paperback - 1996

by Sinclair Lewis

About this book

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis is a satirical novel concerning small town America. The story follows Carol Milford, a liberal and free-spirited woman, as she marries Dr. William Kennicott and settles in his hometown of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. Upon arrival, Carol is shocked by the conservatism and general backwardness of Gopher Prairie—which is loosely based on Lewis’ hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The residents of Gopher Prairie seem more interested in gossip than larger cultural or social issues, which frustrates Carol. In various attempts to reform the town, she implements one improvement project after another, all of them ending in failure. In the end, Carol realizes that her frustrations with the individuals of the town should really have been directed towards its institutions and that although she was been beaten, she has kept the faith. Lewis initially seems to be attacking his small town roots in the novel, but his satire is double-edged; Main Street is not only a critique of simple townspeople, but also of the superficial intellectuals who look down on them.

Main Street was not expected to be a commercial success. Lewis anticipated selling 10,000 copies; Harcourt, Brace and Howe anticipated 20,000. In the first six months of 1921, Main Street sold over 180,000 copies. Main Street is ranked 68th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. The novel was initially awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature that year, but the Board of Trustees overturned the decision and gave the prize to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence instead. (In 1925, Lewis rejected the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith because he felt that he had deserved the prize for Main Street.) 

From the publisher

The first of his major novels of the 1920s, Sinclair Lewis's Main Street satirizes the manners of the American Midwest. Here is the story of Carol Kennicott, who, to be accepted, must adapt to the ways of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. This ground-breaking novel attacks conformism, commercialism, moneygrubbing, and the decline in what Lewis saw as the American ideals of freedom and respect for individuality.

From the rear cover

The first of his major novels of the 1920s, Sinclair Lewis's Main Street satirizes the manners of the American Middle West. Here is the story of Carol Kennicott, who, to be accepted, must adapt to the ways of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. This groundbreaking novel attacks conformism, commercialism, moneygrubbing, and the decline in what Lewis saw as the American ideals of freedom and respect for individuality.

First Edition Identification

Harcourt, Brace and Howe first published Main Street in 1920. Bound in blue cloth with orange highlights, the 448-page first editions state 1920 on both the title page and the copyright page and have Harcourt, Brace and Howe printed on the spine. Points of issue include a perfect "y" in the word "May" on page 387 and an unbattered number 54 on page 54. Signed copies have sold for upwards of $7,500.

Details

  • Title Main Street
  • Author Sinclair Lewis
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Repint
  • Pages 459
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y.
  • Date 1996-03-01
  • ISBN 9781573920483 / 1573920487
  • Weight 1.18 lbs (0.54 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.53 x 5.51 x 1.13 in (21.67 x 14.00 x 2.87 cm)
  • Ages 14 to UP years
  • Grade levels 9 - UP
  • Reading level 1010
  • Themes
    • Demographic Orientation: Small Town
  • Library of Congress subjects Domestic fiction, Satire
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 96004005
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

HARRY SINCLAIR LEWIS was born, the son of a physician, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, on February 7, 1885. Unattractive and unpopular as a youth, Lewis, at the age of seventeen, escaped his small town to enroll at Oberlin Academy in Ohio, in preparation for entrance to Yale University. It was at Yale that Lewis realized his ambition to be a writer. Dropping his first name, he began to contribute poetry and stories to the campus magazines. Lewis left Yale in his senior year to try his hand at freelance writing and to live and work at Helicon Hall, Upton Sinclair's experiment in community living in New Jer-sey. Following his failure at these ventures, Lewis returned to Yale, taking his degree in 1908. For the next two years Lewis worked as a journalist, and from 1910 to 1915, as an editor at various New York publish-ing houses. Following the publication of his first serious novel, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914), Lewis married Grace Livingstone Hegger, who worked at Vogue magazine. With the gradual success of his short stories, which began appearing in the Saturday Evening Post and other periodicals, Lewis could give up work as an editor and devote his full time to writing. Main Street, Lewis's sixth novel and his first major success, was published in 1920. The first of Lewis's great novels of the 1920s, it drew on his experience in Sauk Centre. Set in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, it satirized the conformity and narrow-mindedness of Middle America. Lewis would broaden his attacks on American provincialism, commercialism, racial big-otry, religious fundamentalism, and fascism with his novels Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and later, It Can't Happen Here (1935) and Kingsblood Royal (1947). Despite the success of his novels (he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930) and the great wealth they earned, enabling him to live in both the United States and Europe, Lewis's personal life was dogged by unhappiness. After divorc-ing Grace Hegger in 1928, he married the newspaperwoman Dorothy Thompson, but that marriage soon fell apart. His son by his first wife was killed in World War II. Lewis's last years were plagued by alcoholism and loneliness. He died, alone, in Rome on January 10, 1951.
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Main Street
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Main Street

by Lewis, Sinclair

  • Used
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  • Paperback
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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781573920483 / 1573920487
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Main Street : The Story of Carol Kennicott
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Main Street : The Story of Carol Kennicott

by Lewis, Sinclair

  • Used
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Used - Very Good
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781573920483 / 1573920487
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Main Street (Literary Classics)
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Main Street (Literary Classics)

by Sinclair Lewis

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  • Paperback
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Used - Good
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Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781573920483 / 1573920487
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