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Main Street

Main Street

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Main Street

by Lewis, Sinclair

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Very Good/near fine
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Item Price
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About This Item

New York: Harcourt Brace, 1920. First printing. Hardcover. Very Good/near fine. First issue points. Book very good with very light wear, mild offsetting to endpapers, jacket near fine; jacket later issue, probably 1920-1921, ads begin on rear with 'Easy Lessons in Einstein," 4th printing, $1.35. In lovely midnight-blue gilt full niger clamshell slipcase.

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
Common Crow Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
H10839
Title
Main Street
Author
Lewis, Sinclair
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Very Good
Jacket Condition
near fine
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First printing
Publisher
Harcourt Brace
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1920

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About the Seller

Common Crow Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2005
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

About Common Crow Books

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...

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