Lewis Sinclair is a famous American writer of the last century, the first Nobel laureate in the field of literature from the United States. This talented man managed to find his own style, in which he created works. His biography and main creations are described in the article.
Early years, study
Lewis Sinclair was born in the town of Sock Center in Minnesota in 1885. Then the town was only rebuilt, and his father was the only doctor in the district. They never had much money, and therefore, from the age of fifteen, the future writer went to work at the printing house as a typesetter. At the university, he set himself the direction of studying the intricacies of labor in newspaper editions. He practiced in a wide variety of specialized offices, was a reporter. Along with this, he was already starting to write his first stories. They were published by newspapers, where he was listed as an employee. In 1914, the world saw his first novel, entitled "Our Mr. Rennes."
Early work
Lewis Sinclair did not stop at one book, and his acquaintance with Jack London, already known at that time, only inspired him more. Prior to that, he had already published the novels “The Sunset of Capitalism” and “The Flight of the Falcon”. In 1917, two works immediately saw the world - “Simpletons” and “Work”. The main theme of the young writer was the topic of difficulty in building a loner career. There is a conflict of personality with the surrounding society, where a native of the lower layers of society is trying to knock out his place under the sun. The novel "Work" in this regard is slightly different from other creations. If in other books similar problems are presented through the prism of romance, exoticism, then purely realism is presented here. A working American woman has been working hard for many years in order to create a career for herself. In such topics, the problem of tireless work for the sake of later life is raised, which is not known when it will come. It touches on the hopelessness of the situation of people who are trying to break out into society on their own.
Tipping point
Lewis Sinclair, while working in newspapers, managed to travel a lot around provincial America. He studied the life, customs and culture of ordinary people, which later came in handy. Along with the end of World War I, an economic crisis came into the country. This gave an impetus to the popularity of writers who touched on social topics. Among them was Sinclair, who released precisely during this period the fundamental work “Main Street”. In it, he rebels against all hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness in the views of the provincial hinterland of the United States. In all the books before that, Sinclair used the method of creating illusions, the dreams of the protagonist, through which he found reconciliation with reality. Here, characters, on the contrary, break all the romance and strive to fight with an unfair attitude to themselves. Social themes are more sharply visible in this novel, and the departure from the use of romance with illusionary worlds is considered a turning point in creativity.
Further development
Among Lewis Sinclair's books, Main Street only became the starting point for further novels. Two years later, in 1922, he released the creation of “Babybit”. In it, the main character is an ordinary man in the province who does not want to put up with all the injustices in a capitalist society. He protests against this by all available means. This novel is a continuation of a new direction for the author. The next book, Martin Arrowsmith, won the Pulitzer Prize for its features. The topic of showing not the best position of science in the country was not new, but in his creation Sinclair showed the demands of the intelligentsia in this area. He outlined the basic needs within the work and, from a positive point of view, noted that this could easily be satisfied. This is the merit of the American scientist Paul de Cruy, who helped in creating this masterpiece. In 1927, the golden period in the work of the author ends with the novel "Elmer Gentry". This satire on the theme of representatives of religion also found success with the audience.
