Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885–January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Timeline

• 1885 Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota to Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis.
• 1891 Mother dies. Father marries Isabel Warner in 1892.
• 1902 Attends Oberlin in Ohio.
• 1903-1906 Attends Yale University, serves as editor of Literary Magazine, works on cattleboats during two summers.
• 1906 Spends month doing odd jobs at Upton Sinclair's Helicon Hall (utopian community).
• 1906-1908 Works at temporary jobs, graduates Yale in 1908.
• 1908-1915 Travels U.S., works in New York publishing houses.
• 1912 Hike and the Aeroplane published (first book, a boy's adventure story).
• 1914 Marries Grace Hegger. Our Mr.Wrenn published.
• 1917 The Job and The Innocents published. Son, Wells, born.
• 1919 Free Air published.
• 1920 Main Street published, first major commercial success.
• 1922 Babbitt.
• 1925 Arrowsmith.
• 1926 Mantrap. Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith but refuses it. Father dies.
• 1927 Elmer Gantry.
• 1928 The Man Who Knew Coolidge. Divorces Grace Hegger, marries journalist Dorothy Thompson.
• 1929 Dodsworth.
• 1930 Son Michael born. Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature on November 5 (first American to be so honored).
• 1933 Ann Vickers
• 1934 Work of Art. Assists Sidney Howard in adapting Dodsworth to the stage.
• 1935 It Can't Happen Here and Selected Stories.
• 1936-1942 Writes several plays and acts in a few of them.
• 1938 The Prodigal Parents.
• 1940 Bethel Merriday. Teaches briefly at University of Wisconsin.
• 1942 Divorces Dorothy Thompson.
• 1943 Gideon Planish.
• 1944 Lt. Wells Lewis killed by sniper in Piedmont Valley, France (near Alsace-Lorraine) during WW II.
• 1945 Cass Timberlane.
• 1947 Kingsblood Royal.
• 1949 The God Seeker.
• 1951 Dies in Rome of heart disease. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, MN. World So Wide published posthumously.