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A drunken womanizer succeeds as a preacher in 1920s evangelical America in this satire by the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Main Street. Elmer Gantry is unsure what do to with his future. The captain of the college football team, he doesn't care much for his classes or his uptight classmates, but he does enjoy smoking, drinking, and women. Then a preacher comes to town, inviting Elmer to a revival meeting, and it places him on a path to greatness. The silver-tongued Elmer sets out to save souls as a preacher, but he remains a narcissistic, self-indulgent, shallow, and philandering man. As he ascends to power within the church, many souls suffer in the hypocrite's wake . . . First published in 1926, Elmer Gantry scandalized readers across the United States. A landmark portrait of 1920s America, it is one of the greatest, most penetrating and vital satires ever.
Sinclair Lewis
Nobel Prize-winning writer Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is best known for novels like Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith (for which he was awarded but declined the Pulitzer Prize), and Elmer Gantry. A writer from his youth, Lewis wrote for and edited the Yale Literary Magazine while a student, and started his literary career writing popular stories for magazines and selling plots to other writers like Jack London. Lewis’s talent for description and creating unique characters won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, making him the first American writer to win the prestigious award. Considered to be one of the “greats” of American literature, Lewis was honoured with a Great Americans series postage stamp, and his work has been adapted for both stage and screen.
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