Who was Sinclair Lewis? Many knew him as the author of the 1920`s novel Main Street. Sinclair Lewis was also a son, a husband, and a father. The personal life of Sinclair Lewis often paralleled in certain aspects to his novels. Literary critics have mixed emotions about his work. Some say his works is wonderful, while others say it is horrible. It is all just a matter of opinion. Either way, writing was Sinclair Lewis`s way of letting people into his life.
Emma Kermott, a natural born Canadian, gave birth to Harry Sinclair Lewis on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota (Kuntiz and Howard 821; Schorer 439; “ Lewis, (Harry) Sinclair” 314). No one knows where Lewis`s first name Harry came from, but Sinclair was the surname of a dentist from Wisconsin. The dentist was quite a good friend of Harry`s father, Dr. Emmet J. Lewis. Harry was also the youngest of three boys. When Harry was only five years old his mother Emma died (Schorer 439). Emma`s death left her husband, Dr. Lewis, raising three children by himself (Kuntiz 821). He was not left with this job for long. Dr. Lewis remarried within a year after Emma`s death. Even with a mother figure in his life, it is said that Harry`s childhood was quite loveless (Schorer 439).
After Lewis graduated from high school he attended Yale University where he graduated in 1907 (“ Lewis, (Harry) Sinclair” 314). As a freshman at Yale Lewis`s career as a writer began. Lewis was the only freshman to have a poem published in the Yale Literary Magazine. This famous poem was “Launcelot”(Schorer 439). For a short period of time after college, Lewis worked as a reporter (“ Lewis, (Harry) Sinclair” 314). From 1910 to 1915, Lewis worked in several different publishing houses....
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...is, (Harry) Sinclair.” The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia. 15th ed.
2007. Print.
Hall, Sharon K. ed. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol.4.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. Print.
Cross-reference:
Boynton, Percy H. “Sinclair Lewis.” Hall 247-248.
Coblentz, Stanton A. “ A Shelf of Recent Books.” Hall 246.
Geismar, Maxwell. “Sinclair Lewis.” Hall 253-255.
Kazin, Alfred. “ The New Realism.” Hall 250-251.
Krutch, Joseph Wood. “Sinclair Lewis.” Hall 255.
Mencken, H.L. “ Portrait of an American Citizen.” Hall 246-247.
Priestley, J.B. “Between the Wars.” Hall 255-256.
Whipple, T.K. “ Sinclair Lewis.” Hall 248-250.
Kuntiz, Stanley J. , and Howard Haycraft, eds. Twentieth Century Authors. New York:
Wilson, 1942. Print.
Schorer, Mark. “Sinclair Lewis.” American Writers. Ed. Leonard Unger. Vol.2.
New York: Scribner`s, 1974. Print.
Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20th 1978. Sinclair grew up in a broken household; his father was an alcohol salesman and killed himself drinking. While his mother would not even think about drinking alcohol. So these personalities naturally clashed. So Sinclair found some solace in books, Sinclair was a natural writer and he began publishing at the young age of fifteen years old. Sinclair started off going to school at a small college by the name of New York City College. This was just temporary as Sinclair would need time and money to move higher up to a form of better education. So as a result Sinclair took the initiative and he started writing columns on ethnic jokes and hack fiction for small magazines in New York. The money he earned writing these columns allowed him to completely pay for New York City College, and eventually enroll to attend Columbia University. Sinclair worked as hard as he possibly could to get into Columbia University and he was going to do the absolute best he could while he was attending the University. Since Sinclair needed ex...
Reginald Francis Lewis was born in (East) Baltimore, Maryland on December 7, 1942. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, black people weren’t allowed to shop at many of the stores and they had designated restaurants and movie theaters they were able to attend. At the age of 6, Reginald decided things would be different for him and stated "why should white guys have all the fun?"
John L. Lewis was born on the 2nd of February in 1880 in Lucas, Iowa and he’s was born in to a family of immigrant welch parents which worked in coal mining and trade unionism. By the age of 15 John began working in coal mining and 2 years later he married his wife Myrta Bell, she influenced him to read many things which would later come in to his aid in his public speeches as flowery phrases, Shakespearean quotations, and mixed metaphors. He soon move to souther...
Taking place in the jungle of meat packing factories during the early 1900s in Chicago, a journalist by the name of Upton Sinclair dissects the savage inner workings of America’s working class factory lifestyle. Sinclair portrayed the grim circumstance that workers faced and the exploited lives of factory workers in Chicago. He became what was then called a mudrucker; a journalist who goes undercover to see first hand the conditions they were investigating. Being in poor fortune, Sinclair was able to blend into the surrounds of the factory life with his poor grimy clothing. The undercover journalist would walk into the factory with the rest of the men, examine its conditions, and record them when he returned home. It is the worker’s conditions
Abrams, Rochonne. "The Colonial Childhood of Meriwether Lewis." Abrams, Rochonne. The Colonial Childhood of Meriwether Lewis. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978. 218-327.
When he returned from the army he got enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He received M.A. degree and began to work on his Ph.D. at the same time he started teaching at University of Minnesota and later at MacAlester College. He received Ph.D. from University of Washington for study on Charles Dickens and he did public readings. He taught at Hunter College in New York City from 1966 to 1980. He also worked as translator. He completed some of his poems as he was teaching in the college he states that he didn’t feel any conflict between the duties of teaching and the labors of writing books which are non-academic.
As a transformed Christian, soldier, author, or speaker, C.S. Lewis inspired many in his lifetime. The trials he encountered in his life made him a more inspiring and respectable author and person. Narnia, one of his most popular works, demonstrates moral characteristics in ways we can more easily understand with fictitious characters and settings (Gilbert 14).
Two American authors often compared to write with the influence of Sinclair are John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos. They describe the character’s treatments and injustices.
Urbanization in the early 20th century paved the way for massive industrial booms within larger cities, however leaving behind trails of corruptness and gruesome consequences. Many political scandals and factory based controversies emerged as a result of the lack of regulations, especially in the large, consumer-goods producing industries. Due to their political impact and high social standings, many feared the ramifications that would follow any protest to the corrupt practices. Company owners and managers would hire their own inspectors, who would essentially falsify information about the conditions, and deem them satisfactory, but in reality, it was quite the opposite. Immigrants were especially susceptible to malpractices, seeing that
The journalist Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” to portray the circumstances and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States. His main goal in revealing the meat industry and working situations was to advance socialism in the U.S. The readers were concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, contributing to a public outcry which led to reforms with the Meat Inspection Act. The elements are analogized with rooted corruption of people in the power and Sinclair was considered a muckraker who exposed corruption in the government and business. He spent weeks gathering information whole working in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards for the
Eric Arthur Blair, commonly known under the pseudonym George Orwell, led a fascinating life, from working as a member of the Indian Imperial Police Force, to experiencing poverty firsthand in both London and Paris, to fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell’s diverse life experiences gave him very strong political opinions that carried through to his writing career, during which he addressed issues such as education, poverty, and communism. George Orwell was a master of the modern political satire, through which he powerfully illustrates the political and social issues of the twentieth century.
Ernest Hemmingway is one of the greatest writers of all time. Like many great authors he was influenced by the world in which he lived. The environment that surrounded him influenced Hemmingway. These included such things as serving in the war and living in post war areas where people went to forget about the war. Another influence on his writings was his hobbies. He loved the great outdoors. He spent a lot of his time deep sea fishing and enjoying bull fighting. These influences had an impact on Hemmingway and they were expressed in his writing.
Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ).
Ralph Waldo Emerson, nineteenth century poet and writer, expresses a philosophy of life, based on our inner self and the presence of the soul. Emerson regarded and learned from the great minds of the past, he says repeatedly that each person should live according to his own thinking. I will try to explain Emerson’s philosophy, according to what I think he is the central theme in all his works.
"We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart"(1) said Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest minds of the 17th Century. The 17th Century was the time of the scientific revolution. During this period the main idea for everyone, was to question everything not to just listen to what is told. This caused a transformation in thought in both religious and scientific areas. Science allowed the questioning of the teachings of the old church. Scientists battled with ideas in math and physics, while philosophers battled with ideas of God. It was an intellectual revolution concerning the methods for determining humanity's place in the universe. Blaise Pascal was a physicist, a mathematician, and a man of God. He was a Renaissance man of the scientific revolution.