Main Street (book)

Also Known As: Main Street: the Story of Carol Kennicott

Author: Sinclair Lewis

Type: Novel

As Noted In: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Quintessence Editions
As Noted In: 1100 or so Notable Novels and Novellas, Phantom

Main Street is a 1920 satirical novel by American author, Sinclair Lewis. Highly acclaimed upon publication, Main Street is the best selling American novel published in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. - AsNotedIn

This is America - a town of a few thousand, in a region of wheat and corn and dairies and little groves.

The town is, in our tale called "Gopher Prairie, Minnesota." But its main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere. The story would be the same in Ohio or Montana, in Kansas or Kentucky or Illinois, and up not very differently would be told Up York State or in the Carolina hills. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

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Main Street (book)

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Places

Minneapolis, Minnesota She saw no Indians now she saw flour-mills and the blinking windows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis and St Paul. Nor was she thinking of squaws and portages, and the Yankee fur-traders whose shadows were all about her.
Minnesota, United States of America Blodgett College is on the edge of Minnesota.
St Paul, MN, Minnesota A classmate named Stewart Snyder, a competent bulky young man in a gray flannel shirt, a rusty black bow ties, and the green-and-purple class cap, grumbled to her as they walked behind the others in the muck of the South St Paul stockyards.
United States of America, The story would be the same in Ohio or Montana, in Kansas or Kentucky or Illinois, and up not very differently would be told Up York State or in the Carolina hills.

Timeline

Y/M/D		Association	Description	Place	Locale	Event
1900/07/00	Sinclair Lewis	Work	Harry Sinclair works behind the cigar counter at the Palmer House Hotel during a couple of summers. He will later used it as the model for the "Minniemashie House" in his novel Main Street, set in a town modeled on Sauk Centre.	Palmer House Hotel	Sauk Centre
1920/00/00	Sinclair Lewis	Author	Many of the incidents in "Main Street" come directly from Lewis' actual experiences: his mother's social club, the public restroom and the anti-fly campaign, amateur theatricals, revival meetings, which make the novel a whole scrapbook of his youth.	Original Main Street Historic District	Sauk Centre
1920/10/23	Sinclair Lewis	Author	Although already in stores, "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis is officially published. Lewis steps into Brentano's bookstore in Washington, DC, to see it for himself, but is disconcerted to find copies of "Free Air" still on display.
1920/10/23	Harcourt Brace and Company	Publisher	Although already in stores, "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis is officially published. Lewis steps into Brentano's bookstore in Washington, DC, to see it for himself, but is disconcerted to find copies of "Free Air" still on display.
1921/06/18	New York World	Pulitzer Prize Authority	John L Heaton sends a note to The World's editor clarifying that the Novel jury did not recommend Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" for the Pulitzer, but had selected "Main Street" and that the Pulitzer board reversed their decision.			1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1921/06/18	Sinclair Lewis	Main Street Author	John L Heaton sends a note to The World's editor clarifying that the Novel jury did not recommend Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" for the Pulitzer, but had selected "Main Street" and that the Pulitzer board reversed their decision.			1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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Particulars for Main Street (book):
Art Type	Book	a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.
Narrative Arts	Fiction	prose literature, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people
Narrative Arts	Narrative	an account of connected events
Art Type	Novel	long form fiction narrative that is at least 40,000 words in length
Narrative Arts	Prose	ordinary written language
Narrative Arts	Satire	the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity, hypocrisy or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Information
Original Language:	English