1930 Nobel Prize in Literature
The 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American novelist Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." He is the first American Nobel laureate in literature.
"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters."
Dust jacket for the first edition of Sinclair Lewis' novel Babbitt.
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." Lewis wrote six popular novels: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can't Happen Here (1935).
Lewis in 1930
The Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home museum
Lewis in 1914
Sinclair Lewis's former residence in Washington, D.C.