Sinclair Lewis
1) Babbitt
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Summary
Babbitt turns the spotlight on middle America and strips bare the hypocrisy of business practice, social mores, politics, and religious institutions. In his introduction and notes Gordon Hutner explores the novel's historical and literary contexts, and highlights its rich cultural and social references. --from publisher description
2) Main Street
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First published in 1920, "Main Street" is a biting and satirical look at small town America. Set in the 1910s it follows the struggles of its heroine, Carol Milford, to adapt to small town life. Carol, a young and progressive librarian living in St Paul, Minnesota, falls in love with and marries Will Kennicott, a doctor who dreams of returning to the small town of his childhood. Carol agrees and they move to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, a town modeled...
3) Arrowsmith
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First published in 1925, Sinclair Lewis' "Arrowsmith" is the fascinating tale of a man torn between the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the demands of everyday domestic life. "Arrowsmith" was published to great critical acclaim, being awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926, and has endured as the author's most popular novel. It is the story of Martin Arrowsmith, an intelligent and scientific young man who leaves his small Midwestern hometown to attend...
4) Elmer Gantry
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A vulgar and licentious college football captain becomes a messenger of God as a suave evangelist preacher.
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A cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in the United States first published in 1935. During the presidential election of 1936, Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, observes with dismay that many of the people he knows support the candidacy of a fascist, Berzelius Windrip. When Windrip wins the election, he forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court, and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States...
8) Free air
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Wealthy young socialite Claire Boltwood sets out with her father on a journey from Minneapolis to Seattle in a 70-horsepower Gomez-Dep roadster, one of the finest cars of the post-World War I era. For Milt Daggett, small-town mechanic and garage owner, a glimpse of their vehicle is as exciting as a comet to an astronomer. He's even more astonished by Claire, whose elegance and self-possessed manner inspire him to join the Boltwoods in their trek....
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In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight, " For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal....
Summary
Birdman of Alcatraz: The true story of a convicted killer who avoids the depths of despair by becoming a world-renowned authority on birds during his imprisonment.
Elmer Gantry: One man's fervent pursuit of wealth and power leads him to religion for profit in the evangelist tents of the 1920's Midwestern Corn Belt.
