Sinclair Lewis

During his early literary career, Lewis and his first wife, Grace Hegger Lewis lived in this small bungalow in Port Washington, N.Y. from 1914-1915. The 5-room cottage at 20 Vanderventer Avenue was referred to by the couple as "the Wrenn house," after his 1914 novel, Our Mr. Wrenn.

While living briefly in Port Washington, Lewis was then working in Manhattan as an editor and publicity man for George Doran, and he commuted daily on the Long Island Rail Road.N.Y. Lewis wrote a majority of his second novel, The Trail of the Hawk while commuting by train to Manhattan.

"I can imagine you at a typewriter "grinding out your stuff," as noospaper [sic] men would say, puffing at a cigarette or gazing at the ceiling between times to get inspiration, and then hammering vigorously at the keys before the idea vanishes."

-Author William Salisbury in an open letter to Sinclair Lewis "To Our Nobel Prize Winner", 1931

After his divorce from his first wife, Grace Hegger in 1925, Lewis married journalist and political commentator Dorothy Thompson in London on May 14, 1928.

Lithograph of Sinclair Lewis from, Portraits of Thirty Authors, signed by the artist.

The success and controversy of Babbitt was instrumental with Lewis winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930 by the Swedish Academy. Novelist and critic Ludwig Lewisohn writes of Babbitt: "What gives Babbitt its artistic value is Mr. Lewis's profound recognition that these noisy lives are lived by fear and without desire".
The novel's satirical depiction of the social pressures and conformity of the middle-class and the enterprising American businessman are juxtaposed against the backdrop of the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith. Its protagonist, George F. Babbitt, a middle-class, middle-aged realtor and his ongoing concern of his family's social status inevitably leads to his dissolution in the American Dream.

A promotional leaflet for the 1924 film adaptation of Lewis's novel Babbitt was directed by Harry Beaumont and starred Willard Louis and Carmel Myers.

Sinclair Lewis writes to American novelist and director, Rupert Hughes (the uncle of Howard R. Hughes Jr.) in appreciation for his praise of Lewis's book, Main Street.

New York, September 1934
Dodsworth
Dedication page, inscribed to Beatrice Maude by Sinclair Lewis. Accompanied by a publicity photograph from a play adaptation of Dodsworth, United Artists, 1936. Pictured Walter Huston (Dodsworth) and Ruth Chatterton (Fran) having tea.

Dodsworth was first published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1929.

Letter to Mr. Smith from Sinclair Lewis thanking him for his note about Dodsworth.

Letter to Mr. Shaw on the issue of censorship

Black and white photograph of Sinclair Lewis by the photographer Philippe Halsman, 1949

Lewis enjoyed great critical and financial success with such works as Main Street and Babbitt in the 1920's and his work continued to be favorably received though the mid-1930's, however after the publication of The Prodigal Parents in 1938, Lewis's reputation slipped into critical decline. Lewis's personal life did not fare so well either. His struggles with alcoholism by the late 1930's most likely contributed to the dissolution of his second marriage to Dorothy Thompson, which ended in divorce in 1942.

Sinclair Lewis died in Rome, Italy in 1951 at the age of 65. The Wrenn house where Lewis once lived with his first wife Grace, is no longer standing at 20 Vanderventer Ave. Grace was active in the Village Welfare Society, a local charitable organization. Stories are told of Lewis making speeches on behalf of women's rights, although these accounts remain unsubstantiated.