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About the Author

Harry Sinclair Lewis was born on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, one of three boys. His father was a doctor and very strict and his mother passed away when he was six. A year later, his father remarried a woman who Harry loved. Harry was tall, thin, red-haired, and pop-eyed, making it difficult to make friends. When he was thirteen, he ran away from home, hoping to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War. He was returned home shortly thereafter. In 1902, he spent a year at Oberlin Academy to qualify for acceptance at Yale, which he attended for the next five years. During that time, he worked at Upton Sinclair’s cooperative-living colony in New Jersey and traveled to Panama. While at Yale, he worked on the Yale Literary Magazine and became an editor. After graduation, he earned money by selling plots to Jack London. Lewis’ first published book came out in 1912, followed by his first serious novel, “Our Mr. Wrenn” in 1914. This was followed by more in 1915, 1917, and 1919. In 1914, Lewis married Grace Hegger, who was an editor at Vogue magazine. They had one son named Wells Lewis, after H. G. Wells. They divorced in 1925 and he married Dorothy Thompson in 1928. They had a son, then divorced in 1942. In 1920, Lewis’ novel “Main Street” became a phenomenon when it sold more than two million copies, versus a projected twenty-five thousand. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Arrowsmith” in 1925, but he refused it. The story was made into a movie, as were his next two books, “Elmer Gantry” and “Dodsworth.” His short story “Little Bear Bongo” became part of the Disney film “Fun and Fancy Free.” In 1930, Lewis became the first writer from the United States to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1937, Lewis checked into a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts for treatment of alcoholism. He died in Rome, Italy on January 10, 1951, at the age of 65, from alcoholism. He was cremated and his remains were buried in Sauk Centre.