The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 19201930

The Rise of Sinclair Lewis examines the making of Lewis s best-selling novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantrytheir sources, composition, publication, and subsequent critical reception. Drawing on thousands of pages of material from Lewiss notes, outlines, and draftsmost of it never before publishedJames M. Hutchisson shows how Lewis selected usable materials and shaped them, through his unique vision, into novels that reached and remained part of the American literary imagination. Hutchisson also describes for the first time how large a role was played by Lewiss wives, assistants, and publishers in determining the final shape of his books.