Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
Main Street

(1920) was Sinclair Lewis's first best-selling novel. Although he had published five novels previous to 1920 and had made a comfortable living writing short stories for mass-circulation magazines, it was only with the publication of

Main Street

that Lewis became nationally famous as a writer of fiction.

As the subtitle of the first edition proclaimed, Main Street is “The Story of Carol Kennicott,” but it is also the story of her husband, Dr. Will Kennicott, and of the small Minnesota town in which they settle. Carol Milford is introduced during her college years as a potential reformer who dreams of transforming a lonely prairie town from a dreary village into a quaint collection of picturesque cottages. After an intervening year as a Chicago librarian, Carol marries small

1422 words

Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "Main Street". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3768, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3768 Main Street 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.