Main Street
by Lewis, Sinclair
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Fine
- Seller
-
Garrison, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Limited Editions Club . Illustrated with nine tinted plates after drawings by Grant Wood. Of a total of 1500 copies SIGNED by the artist on the colophon page, this copy is not numbered 373. Bound in flexible gray linen with the spine lettered in blue on a yellow field and the front cover lettered in blue on a tan field. . Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1937.
Synopsis
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis is a satirical novel concerning small town America. The story follows Carol Milford, a liberal and free-spirited woman, as she marries Dr. William Kennicott and settles in his hometown of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. Upon arrival, Carol is shocked by the conservatism and general backwardness of Gopher Prairie—which is loosely based on Lewis’ hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota. The residents of Gopher Prairie seem more interested in gossip than larger cultural or social issues, which frustrates Carol. In various attempts to reform the town, she implements one improvement project after another, all of them ending in failure. In the end, Carol realizes that her frustrations with the individuals of the town should really have been directed towards its institutions and that although she was been beaten, she has kept the faith. Lewis initially seems to be attacking his small town roots in the novel, but his satire is double-edged; Main Street is not only a critique of simple townspeople, but also of the superficial intellectuals who look down on them. Main Street was not expected to be a commercial success. Lewis anticipated selling 10,000 copies; Harcourt, Brace and Howe anticipated 20,000. In the first six months of 1921, Main Street sold over 180,000 copies. Main Street is ranked 68th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. The novel was initially awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature that year, but the Board of Trustees overturned the decision and gave the prize to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence instead. (In 1925, Lewis rejected the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith because he felt that he had deserved the prize for Main Street.)
Read More: Identifying first editions of Main Street
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Details
- Bookseller
- J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 003925
- Title
- Main Street
- Author
- Lewis, Sinclair
- Illustrator
- Grant Wood
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Publisher
- Limited Editions Club
- Date Published
- 1937
Terms of Sale
J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints
Payment can be made by credit card, checks made out to J Mercurio Books, or PayPal. Shipment usually occurs within two business days, unless customer requests that we hold or ship on a different day. If a book or set is oversized, we may contact the customer for additional shipping to ensure proper transport.
About the Seller
J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints
Biblio member since 2019
Garrison, New York
About J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints
We are a 50 year old, third generation antiquarian bookshop nestled in the bucolic Hudson Highlands of New York's historic Hudson Valley, less than a mile from a transverse of the Appalachian Trail. While we have strong first edition literature and poetry collections, we specialize in New York, history, and Americana. We are a proud member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA).
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Colophon
- The colophon contains information about a book's publisher, the typesetting, printer, and possibly even includes a printer's...
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