Harry Sinclair Lewis was born February 7th, 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Lewis' mother died in 1891. Lewis's father remarried and Lewis became close to his stepmother, Isabel. Lewis's father, Emmet J. Lewis, was "highly respected, but old fashioned physician" (Shaman 844). As Lewis grew up he took note of the town where he lived. Initially, Sauk Centre was at first inhabited mainly by pioneers and Native Americans, but later "betrayed its pioneer spirit, in favor of [a] dull and conservative" way of life (844). Lewis was viewed as a misfit and an outsider by his community, his lanky body type and bright red hair contributed to this image. From 1903 to 1906 Lewis attended Yale.

After his graduation he spent much of his time on traveling adventures around the world. In 1906 Lewis helped Upton Sinclair run his experimental utopian society in New Jersey, Helicon Hall. In 1908, Lewis traveled to the Panama Canal in...