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Time Line

Sinclair Lewis lived from 1885 to 1951. The following is a time line of significant events in his life

  • 1885 Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis.
  • 1891 Mother dies.
  • 1892 Father marries Isabel Warner.
  • 1902 Attends Oberlin Academy in Ohio.
  • 1903-1906 Attends Yale University, serves as editor of Yale Literary Magazine, works on cattle boats during two summers.
  • 1906 Works temporary jobs and spends a month doing odd jobs at Upton Sinclair's Helicon Hall.
  • 1907-1908 Returns to Yale and graduates.
  • 1908-1915 Travels the U.S., works in New York publishing houses, and writes poetry and short stories.
  • 1912 Hike and the Aeroplane is published under the name Tom Graham.
  • 1914 Marries Grace Hegger, and Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man is published.
  • 1916 The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life is published.
  • 1917 The Job: An American Novel and The Innocents: A Story for Lovers are published. Son, Wells, is born.
  • 1919 Free Air is published.
  • 1920 Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott is published.
  • 1922 Babbitt is published.
  • 1925 Arrowsmith is published.
  • 1926 Mantrap is published. Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith, but refuses it. Father dies.
  • 1927 Elmer Gantry is published.
  • 1928 The Man Who Knew Coolidge: Being the Soul of Lowell Schmaltz, Constructive and Nordic Citizen, is published. Divorces Grace Hegger, weds Dorothy Thompson.
  • 1929 Dodsworth is published.
  • 1930 Son, Michael, is born. Becomes first American awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
  • 1933 Ann Vickers is published.
  • 1934 Work of Art is published. Assists Sidney Howard in adapting Dodsworth to the stage.
  • 1935 It Can't Happen Here is published.
  • 1937 Selected Short Stories of Sinclair Lewis is published.
  • 1936-1942 Writes several plays, including Angela is Twenty-Two, acting in a few of them.
  • 1938 The Prodigal Parents is published.
  • 1940 Bethel Merriday is published. Teaches briefly at University of Wisconsin.
  • 1942 Divorces Dorothy Thompson.
  • 1943 Gideon Planish is published.
  • 1944 Lt. Wells Lewis is killed by a sniper in Piedmont Valley, France, during WWII.
  • 1945 Cass Timberlane is published.
  • 1947 Kingsblood Royal is published.
  • 1949 The God-Seeker is published.
  • 1951 Dies in Rome of heart disease, buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Sauk Centre, Minnesota. World So Wide is published posthumously.