2sinclair Lewis
Excerpt from Babbitt
Published in 1922
Anative of the midwestern United States, Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) chronicled through novels and short stories the changes brought by the shift from a mainly rural, agricultural society to one that was increasingly urban and industrial. The middle-class businessman and resident of the up-and-coming town of Zenith who is the title character of Babbitt is probably Lewis's best-known creation. The novel captures in realistic detail many of the major trends of the 1920s, including the worship of business, rising materialism and consumerism, boosterism (enthusiastic promotion), and the conflict between the older and younger generations. Lewis exposes a spiritual emptiness and complacency (being uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's society) at the core of his characters' lives.
Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, a tiny village on the Minnesota prairie. He entered Yale University in 1903, pursuing his interest in writing and publishing his work in student magazines. After traveling to Europe and Central America, Lewis graduated in 1908. He lived in Iowa, New York, California, and Washington, D.C., working as a journalist while also writing short stories and novels. Lewis's first big success came with the publication of his novel Main Street (1920), in which the central character, Carol Kennicott, is an idealistic city dweller who moves to a small town with her new husband.
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