Harry Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota in 1885 and was educated at Yale University. Early determining that he wanted to be a writer, he worked for newspapers in Sauk Centre during his boyhood and in New Haven, Connecticut, during his college years. After graduation, Lewis worked as a reporter and as editor and advertising manager for New York publishers while writing fiction in the evenings. Under the pseudonym “Tom Graham”, Lewis published a boys' book,

Hike and the Aeroplane

(1912). He married his first wife, Grace Hegger, in 1914 and soon thereafter resigned from his publishing house to write full time.

From 1914 to 1920, Lewis supported himself, his wife, and his first son Wells (born in 1917) by publishing short fiction for popular magazines, most notably

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Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "Sinclair Lewis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2723, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2723 Sinclair Lewis 1 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.

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