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Biographical Books on Lewis and his Circle

  /  Biographical Books on Lewis and his Circle

[Atlantic Monthly] Jubilee : One Hundred Years of the Atlantic / selected and edited by Edward Weeks and Emily Flint — Boston : Little, Brown, [1957]
— Includes “The Incorruptible Sinclair Lewis” by Perry Miller, which first appeared in the April 1951 issue of the Atlantic.

Off with their Heads! / by Peggy Bacon — New York : Robert M. McBride & Company, 1934.
— Publisher’s review copy.
— Includes a caricature of Lewis, which is also reproduced on the dust jacket. Bacon’s caption reads in part: “… Flesh like canned tomatoes with the seeds … Nose of a grocer adding up slip …”

Modern Short Biographies and Autobiographies / edited by Marston Balch — New York : Harcourt, Brace, 1940.
— Includes a chapter on Lewis’s longtime friend Vincent Sheean.

The Dust which is God / William Rose Benet — limited ed. — New York : Dodd, Mead, 1941.
— Lewis makes a fictional appearance as the character “Larry Harris.” This copy signed by Benet.

Writers in Residence : American Authors at Home / text and photos by Glynne Robinson Betts — New York : Viking Press, c1981.
— With a chapter on Lewis’s boyhood home in Sauk Centre, Minn.

The Goal / Phyllis Bottome — New York : The Vanguard Press, [c1962]
— The author writes about her friendship with Lewis and his second wife, journalist Dorothy Thompson.

That Summer in Paris / Morley Callaghan — New York : Coward-McCann, 1963.
— Includes anecdotes about Lewis.

Up and Down and Around : A Publisher Recollects the Time of his Life / Cass Canfield — New York : Harper’s Magazine Press, [c1971]
— Includes several references to Lewis; Harper & Bros. was his publisher from 1913-1917.

Vermont Summer Homes / by Dorothy Canfield — Montpelier : Vermont Bureau of Publicity, c1932.
— Illustrations includes a photograph of Lewis’s Vermont home, Twin Farms.

Kitty, an Autobiography / by Kitty Carlisle [Hart] — New York : Doubleday, 1988.
— Carlisle remembers her longtime admirer.

Five Minute Biographies / by Dale Carnegie — New York : Greenberg, [c1937]
— With a chapter on Lewis entitled “Fired from Four Newspapers, He Won the Nobel Prize and Thought it was a Gag.”

Do not Disturb / by Frank Case ; ill. by Otto Soglow — New York : Stokes, 1940.
— The proprietor of the Algonquin writes about Lewis and his contemporaries. This copy inscribed by Helen Thurber “For Mother”

Tales of a Wayward Inn / by Frank Case… — New York : Stokes, 1938.

At Random : The Reminiscences of Bennet Cerf — New York : Random, c1977.
— With an account of Lewis’s association with Random House, which published his books from 1940 until his death in 1951.

In Search of Something : The Memoirs of a Public Relations Man / by Herbert Cerwin — Los Angeles : Sherbourne Pr., [c1966]
— Includes a mention of Lewis’s purchase of short story plots from author Stephen Allen Reynolds.

What is an Editor? : Saxe Commins at Work / Dorothy Commins — Chicago : U. of Chicago Pr., 1978.
— Commins was one of Lewis’s editors at Random House after 1940.

Sinclair Lewis at Thorvale Farm : A Personal Memoir / Ida L. Compton — Sarasota : Ruggles Pub. Co., c1988.
— Compton, a friend of Lewis’s from 1947 until his death in 1951, writes about his stay at Thorvale Farm, Mass. in the late 1940s.

Dangerfield / Barnaby Conrad — New York : Harper, [c1961]
— A fictionalized account of Lewis’s last years. This copy illustrated with an ink drawing of Lewis by Conrad. Beneath this he has written “With best wishes to the Port Washington Library from Sinclair Lewis (and Barnaby Conrad who was his secretary in 1947 and used to sign his checks and autographs for him!”

Fun While it Lasted / Barnaby Conrad — New York : Random House, [c1969]
— An autobiography. This copy signed by Conrad.

San Francisco : A Profile with Pictures / Barnaby Conrad — New York : Viking Press, [c1959]
— Includes a reference to Lewis’s brief career as a San Francisco newspaperman in 1909-1910.

The Argus Book Shop : A Memoir / D.B. Covington — West Cornwall, Conn. : Tarrydiddle Pr., 1977.
— With an anecdote about a lengthy visit from Lewis. This copy inscribed to the library by Covington.

Three Literary Men : A Memoir of Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson [and] Edgar Lee Masters / by August Derleth — New York : Candlelight Pr., 1963.

The Letters of Bernard De Voto / edited by Wallace Stegner — Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1975.
— Includes a letter from De Voto discussing his 1944 feud with Lewis.

A Peculiar Treasure / by Edna Ferber — New York : Literary Guild of America, 1939.
— Ferber remembers her early friendship with Lewis.

Literary San Francisco / by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Nancy J. Peters — San Francisco : City Lights Books, c1980.
— With a brief account of Lewis’s stay in Carmel in 1909.

The Columnists : A Surgical Survey / by Charles Fisher — New York : Howell, Soskin, [1944]
— Includes a chapter entitled “Dorothy Thompson: Cosmic Force.”

American Utopianism / [compiled by] Robert S. Fogarty — Itasca, Ill. : F. E. Peacock, [c1972]
— With an description of Upton Sinclair’s utopian community, Helicon Hall. Lewis was a member in 1906 and worked as a janitor.

Published in Paris / Hugh Ford ; Foreword by Janet Flanner — London : Garnstone Press, 1975.

Love Letters : An Illustrated Anthology / [compiled by] Antonia Fraser — Chicago : Contemporary Books, c1989.
— Reprints the text of a letter from Dorothy Thompson to Lewis.

My Last Million Readers / by Emile Gauvreau — New York : Dutton, 1941.
— Includes references to Lewis.

Here at the New Yorker / Brendan Gill — First ed. — New York : Random House, c1975.
— Inscribed by Gill: “The first rule of life is to have a good time.” Signed additionally by cartoonist Charles Addams.

Here at the New Yorker / Brendan Gill ; [with a new introduction by the author] — New York : Carroll & Graf, c1987.

The Bending Cross : A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs / Ray Ginger — New Brunswick : Rutgers U. Pr., 1949.
— Lewis met with Debs often during the planning of his “labor novel,” which was never written.

Thornton Wilder : An Intimate Portrait / Richard H. Goldstone –New York : Saturday Review Press, c1975.
— Includes references to Lewis’s theatrical career, during which he appeared in Wilder’s Our Town in the role of the stage manager.

Masters of Caricature / edited by Ann Gould ; introduction and commentary by William Feaver — New York : Knopf, 1981.
— With a caricature of Lewis.

Max Gordon Presents / by Max Gordon ; with Lewis Funke — [New York] : B. Geis Assoc. ; distributed by Random House, 1963.
— Gordon was the producer of Sidney Howard’s dramatization of Lewis’s Dodsworth.

The Hustons / Lawrence Grobel — New York : Scribner’s, c1989.
— Walter Huston appeared as Sam Dodsworth on stage, and later on screen.

Publishers on Publishing / [edited by] Gerald Gross — London : Secker & Warburg, 1961.
— Includes George Doran’s account of his early employment of Lewis.

Laughing Torso : Reminiscences / by Nina Hamnet — New York : Ray Long & Richard Smith, Inc., 1932.
— Includes an account of an altercation between Lewis and two American students at a French bar.

Some Experiences / Alfred Harcourt — Riverside, Conn. : [privately printed], 1951.
— Harcourt was Lewis’s publisher from 1919-1930.

Across the River and into the Trees / by Ernest Hemingway — [1st ed. ] — New York : Scribner, [c1950]
— Lewis appears as a fictional character: “He looks like a caricature of an American who has been run half way through a meat chopper and then boiled, slightly …”

Across the River and into the Trees / by Ernest Hemingway — New York : Scribner’s / Macmillan, 1988.

Dorothy Thompson & Rose Wilder Lane : Forty Years of Friendship : Letters, 1921-1960 / edited by William Holtz — Columbia : University of Missouri Press, c1991.

Jonathan Cape, Publisher / Michael S. Howard — London : J. Cape, [1971]
— Cape was Lewis’s English publisher for 28 years, until Jonathan Cape criticized The God-Seeker in 1949.

Back to Montparnasse / by Sisley Huddleston — London : Harrap, [1931]
— With an account of the European reaction to Lewis’s 1930 Nobel Prize.

One American and his Attempt at Education / Frazier Hunt — New York : Simon & Schuster, 1938.
— Lewis dedicated Mantrap (1926) to his friend Hunt.

Portraits of Thirty Authors / by Leonebel Jacobs — New York : Scribner’s, 1937.
— With sepia engravings and biographical sketches of Lewis and Dorothy Thompson.

The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken : A Drinking Biography / Bud Johns –San Francisco : Synergistic Press, c1968.
— Mencken expected his basement liquor supply to last until the repeal of Prohibition, but a visit from Lewis proved “devastating.”

The Other Side of Main Street / by Henry Johnson — New York : Columbia University, 1943.

Now, Barabbas / William Jovanovich — New York : Harper, 1964.

Mein Freund der Verleger : Ernst Rowohlt und seine Zeit / Walter Kiaulehn — [Hamburg] : Rowohlt, [1967]
— Rowohlt was Lewis’s German publisher.

Sinclair Lewis : Home at Last / John Koblas — Bloomington, Minn. : Voyageur Pr., c1981.
— Documents Lewis’s periodic returns to the Midwest.

American Cassandra : The Life of Dorothy Thompson / Peter Kurth
— Boston : Little, Brown, c1990.

The Fine Art of Literary Mayhem : A Lively Account of Famous Writers and their Feuds / by Myrick Land — New York : Holt, 1962.
— Includes an account of Lewis’s 1944 feud with critic Bernard De Voto.

The Lardners / Ring Lardner, Jr. — New York : Harper & Row, c1976.
— Lewis is mentioned as a friend of the family.

Literary Caricatures / by David Levine from the New York Review of Books — [New York : The New York Review, Inc., c1964]
— 15 loose leaves in portfolio. Includes a caricature of Lewis with Dorothy Thompson.

Pens and Needles; Literary Caricatures / by David Levine ; selected and introduced by John Updike — Boston : Gambit, c1969.
— With a caricature of Lewis, and another of Lewis and Thompson.

Sinclair Lewis & Mantrap : The Saskatchewan Trip / by Claude B. Lewis ; edited by John J. Koblas and Dave Page — Madison : Main Street Press, c1985.
— A memoir by Lewis’s brother. Lewis used his experiences on this trip as the basis for his 1926 novel Mantrap.

Treaty trip; an Abridgement of Dr. Claude Lewis’s Journal of an Expedition Made by himself and his Brother, Sinclair Lewis, to Northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1924 / [Claude Lewis] ; edited with an introduction by Donald Greene and George Knox — Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Pr., [c1959]

Half a Loaf / by Grace Hegger Lewis — New York : Liveright, Inc., c1931.
— A fictionalized account of Lewis’s first marriage.

With Love from Gracie : Sinclair Lewis, 1912-1925 / by Grace Hegger Lewis — New York ; Harcourt, [1955]
— An autobiography by Lewis’s first wife.

Letters of Vachel Lindsay / [Vachel Lindsay] ; edited by M. Chenetier — New York : B. Franklin, [c1979]
— Reprints 3 letters from Lindsay to Lewis.

The Owl among Colophons : Henry Holt as Publisher and Editor / by Charles A. Madison — New York : Holt, 1966.
— With an account of Lewis’s association with Holt.

Disturber of the Peace : The Life of H.L. Mencken / by William Manchester — 2nd ed. — Amherst : U. of Mass. Pr., 1986.
— Describes the first meeting of Mencken, George Jean Nathan and Lewis in 1920.

Literary Lights : A Book of Caricatures / by Gene Markey — New York : Knopf, 1923.
— Includes a caricature of Lewis.

The Constant Circle : H.L. Mencken and his Friends / by Sara Mayfield — New York : Delacorte, c1968.

Being Geniuses Together / Robert McAlmon — London : Secker & Warburg, [1938]
— McAlmon gives his impression of Lewis and his first wife.

Being Geniuses Together / Robert McAlmon — rev. ed. — London : M. Joseph, 1970, c1968.

Twelve Tales / by Harry McGuire — Santa Barbara : Schauer Printing Studio, 1962.
— Includes the fictional “How Sinclair Lewis Became a Novelist.”

The Diary of H.L. Mencken / [H.L. Mencken] ; edited by Charles A. Fecher — New York : Knopf, 1989.
— Mencken’s own impressions of Lewis.

My Life as Author and Editor / H.L. Mencken ; edited by Jonathan Yardley — New York : Knopf, 1993.
— Includes a long reminiscence of Lewis by Mencken.

The New Mencken Letters / [H.L. Mencken] ; edited by Carl Bode — New York : Dial Press, 1977.

Morocco Bound : Adrift among Books / by Edwin Valentine Mitchell — New York : Farrar, [c1929]
— With an account of Lewis’s stay in Hartford in 1922: “Hartford was stirred at his arrival and relieved at his departure.”

Gatsby and Beyond / Robert Moses — [s.l.] : reprinted from the L.I. Press, 1964.
— A comparison of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Lewis.

The Revealing Eye; Personalities of the 1920s in Photographs / by Nickolas Muray and words by Paul Gallico — New York : Atheneum, 1967.
— With a photo of Lewis.

H.L. Mencken, Literary Critic / by William H. Nolte — Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan U. Pr., [c1966]

So Red the Nose : Or, Breath in the Afternoon / edited by Sterlin North and Carl Kroch ; illustrated by Roy C. Nelson — New York : Farrar & Rinehart, c1935.
— “Sinclair Lewis says that he drinks only dry martinis.”

Thomas Wolfe, a Biography / by Elizabeth Nowell — Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1960.
— Lewis appeared as the fictional Lloyd McHarg in You Can’t go Home Again.

The Selected Letters of John O’Hara / [John O’Hara] ; edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli — New York : Random House, c1978.
— O’Hara explains Lewis’s involvement in “the Algonquin incident” in a letter to Lewis’s biographer Mark Schorer.

Sinclair Lewis : The Journey / by Roberta Olson — Sauk Centre : [privately printed], 1990.
— With a chronology of Lewis’s life, and a list of his novels. This copy signed by the author.

Editor to Author : The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins / [Maxwell E. Perkins] ; selected and edited by John H. Wheelock — New York : Scribner, [c1950]

Paris was our Mistress : Memoirs of a Lost and Found Generation / by Samuel Putnam — New York : Viking, 1947.
— Includes references to Lewis and his circle.

Your Fate is in your Hand / by Josef Ranald ; illustrated with Cuts of Hands of Famous People — Chicago : Reilly & Lee, c1935.
— Illustrated with a sketch of Lewis’s palm: “Are you a keen observer? … If so, you should be able to find a cross underneath your third finger … known as the Cross of Keen Observation.”

I Remember Distinctly : A Family Album of the American People in the Years of Peace : 1918 to Pearl Harbor / assembled by Agnes Rogers ; with running comment by Frederick Lewis Allen — New York : Harper, c1947.
— Illustrations include a portrait of Lewis.

Dorothy Thompson : A Legend in her Time / Marion K. Sanders — Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

[Saturday Review] The Saturday Review Gallery / selected…by Jerome Beatty [et.al.] — New York : Simon & Schuster, 1959.
— Includes “The Sauk-centricities of Sinclair Lewis” by Charles Breasted, which first appeared in the Aug. 14, 1954 issue of the Saturday Review.

The Burdens of Biography / by Mark Schorer — [Ann Arbor] : University of Michigan, c1962.
— Schorer discusses his experiences writing the definitive biography of Lewis. This copy inscribed by Schorer.

Sinclair Lewis / Mark Schorer — Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Pr., [1963] — (University of Minnesota pamphlets on American writers ; no. 27)

Sinclair Lewis : An American Life / by Mark Schorer — New York : McGraw-Hill, [c1961]

[Another copy]

Sinclair Lewis : An American Life / by Mark Schorer — [1st English ed.] — London : Heinemann, [c1961]

[Sinclair Lewis : An American Life. Polish] / by Mark Schorer –Warsaw : Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1968.

The Four Seasons of Success / Budd Schulberg — Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1972.
— Includes “Sinclair Lewis: Big noise from Sauk Centre,” which first appeared in Esquire in 1960.

The Four Seasons of Success / Budd Schulberg — [1st English ed.] — London : Robson Books, [1974]

The Low-Down / by Charles G. Shaw — New York : Henry Holt and Co., c1928.
— Includes a biographical sketch of Lewis, illustrated with a caricature by Peter Arno.

Dorothy and Red / by Vincent Sheean — Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1963.

Dorothy and Red / Vincent Sheean — [1st English ed.] — London : Heinemann, [1964, c1963]

Personal History / Vincent Sheean — Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Doran, 1935.

Southern Belle / by Mary Craig Sinclair — memorial ed. — Phoenix : Sinclair Press, 1962.

American Outpost : A Book of Reminiscences / by Upton Sinclair — New York : Farrar, [c1932]
— Sinclair mentions the arrival of Lewis at Helicon Hall in 1906.

The Cup of Fury / Upton Sinclair — Great Neck, N.Y. : Channel Pr., [c1956]
— Sinclair writes: “I was glad of all the success that came to Lewis, and deeply regretful for the misery … alcohol destroyed him.”

Pilloried! / by Sewell Stokes — New York : Appleton, 1929.
— Includes a chapter on Lewis entitled “Main Street to Hollywood.”

Drieser / by W.A. Swanberg — New York : Scribner’s, c1965.
— Includes an account of Lewis’s fight with Dreiser at the Metropolitan Club in New York in 1931.

Selected Letters of James Thurber / [James Thurber] ; edited by Helen Thurber and Edward Weeks — New York : Penguin, 1982.
— Thurber discusses Lewis in several letters.

Corner on Main Street / Al Tingley — St. Cloud, Minn. : Dauntless and Creative Concepts, Inc., [c1984]
— [The] “True story of the innkeepers on Sinclair Lewis Avenue / Dedicated to Harry (Red) Sinclair Lewis …”

Adventures in Editing / by Charles Hanson Towne — New York : Appleton, 1926.
— Towne remembers Lewis as he was in 1907.

So Far, so Good / Charles Hanson Towne — New York : J. Messner, [c1945]

Albert Payson Terhune; the Master of Sunnybank / by Kurt Unkelbach — New York : Charterhouse, [1972]
— Terhune was an usher at Lewis’s first wedding in 1914.

Sinclair Lewis, a Biographical Sketch / by Carl Van Doren ; with a Bibliography by Harvey Taylor — 1st ed. — Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1933.

[Vanity Fair] Vanity Fair : Selections… / edited by Cleveland Amory and Frederic Bradlee — New York : Viking, [1960]
— Includes “Three Americans: Exceedingly personal glimpses of Sinclair Lewis, Texas Guinan and Clarence Darrow” by Charles G. Shaw, which first appeared in the Nov. 1928 issue of Vanity Fair.

The Seacoast of Bohemia; an Account of Early Carmel / by Franklin Walker — San Francisco : Book Club of California, 1966.
— With an account of Lewis’s stay in Carmel in 1909, during which he worked as a secretary to Grace MacGowan Cooke and her sister Alice MacGowan.

The Letters of Edith Wharton / [Edith Wharton] ; edited by R.W.B. Lewis and Nancy Lewis — New York : Scribner, c1988.
— Reprints several letters from Wharton to Lewis. Lewis dedicated Babbitt to her in 1922.

Golden Friends I had; Unrevised Memories of Margaret Widdemer –Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1964.
— With Widdemer’s impressions of Lewis and each of his wives.

You Can’t go Home Again / Thomas Wolfe — [1st ed.] — New York : Harper & Row, [c1940]
— Lewis appears as Lloyd McHarg: “He was fantastically ugly … [His eyes] were so bleached and faded that they looked as if they had been poached …”

On the Other Hand / Fay Wray — New York : St. Martin’s, c1989.
— Wray reminisces about Lewis, one of her admirers, with whom she co-wrote Angela is Twenty-two.

History of the Class of 1907 : Yale College — New Haven : [The College], [1913-1952] 7 vols.
— These volumes includes references to Lewis as a class member, portraits, biographical sketches, etc.

The Life and Letters of Stuart P. Sherman / by Jacob Zeitlin and Homer Woodbridge — New York : Farrar & Rinehart, c1929. — Sherman was the author of The Significance of Sinclair Lewis (1922).