"A monumental study of one of the most famous authors in the 20th century by one of the most distinguished literary men of America today, Sinclair Lewis: An American Life will stand for years to come in the select company of definitive American biographies. As described by Mark Schorer, the book is 'a detailed account of Sinclair Lewis' life, from birth to death, a life lived in many places & full of constant peregrination. It was in many ways a disastrous life, full of sordid horror, & the book does not gloss over that. It was also, in many ways, a life full of comedy & buffoonery, & these too find their place in the text. The approach of the book is not literary or critical; it treats Lewis' books & other writings chiefly as events in his life, & events that helped to form his character. The tone is casual & personal, perhaps slightly ironical. The book attempts to locate Lewis in the American literary scene, contrasting & comparing him with his contemporaries, chiefly people whom he actually knew. Lewis is a prime example of that characteristic phenomenon of American literature—the man who enjoys a tremendous & rather early success & then suffers through a long period of decline & deterioration...'"—jacket description Permissions Foreword Small town College Climb Success Decline Fall A Sinclair Lewis Checklist Index
Author
Mark Schorer was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. During his academic career, he held positions at Dartmouth, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he chaired the Department of English from 1960 to 1965. A leading critic of his time, he was best known for his work, Sinclair Lewis: An American Life. Schorer was also the author of many short stories, which appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire. Among his honors were three Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright professorship at the University of Pisa and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He also was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the most prestigious honor society for creative arts in the country. Schorer was called as an expert witness during the 1957 obscenity trial over the Allen Ginsberg poem Howl, and testified in defense of the poem. This incident is dramatized in the film Howl (2010), in which Schorer is portrayed by Treat Williams. In addition to his scholarly works, he also co-authored a series of science-fiction and horror stories with writer, publisher and childhood friend (both being natives of Sauk City, Wisconsin) August Derleth. These stories, originally published mainly in Weird Tales magazine during the 1920s and 1930s, were eventually anthologized in Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (1966). Schorer died from a blood infection following bladder surgery in Oakland, California at the age of 69.
