Sinclair Lewis, Kingsblood Royal

Robert E. Fleming (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1947

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Kingsblood Royal

(1947) marked the return of Sinclair Lewis as one of the most controversial novelists in the USA. After his series of sensational novels including

Main Street

(1920),

Babbitt

(1922),

Arrowsmith

(1925), and

Elmer Gantry

(1927), Lewis continued to publish novels, but only

It Can’t Happen Here

(1935), a dystopian fantasy about Fascism in America, had brought him the kind of widespread notoriety that had marked his career in the 1920s.

With Kingsblood Royal Lewis returned to centre stage by attacking racism. The novel tells the story of a young veteran of World War II who has returned to his home town, the mythical small city of Grand Republic, Minnesota. The son of a popular dentist, Neil Kingsblood has survived a serious wound to return to his wife Vestal and daughter

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1211 words

Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "Kingsblood Royal". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 December 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4222, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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