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Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Lynchburg, Virginia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Appears to be First Edition, 1st State, without the battering on pages 54 and 387. Dated 1920 on both title page and copyright page. 451 pages. No jacket. Bookplate on front pastedown. Prior owner name written in pencil on front flypaper, as well as a small pencil note "1st Ed" in corner. Book is in Good condition, with light bumping to cover corners and light edgewear. Some light spotting/foxing in endpapers. Spine sun tanned. Very light foxing throughout text pages. Otherwise unmarked.
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
- Givens Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 20356
- Title
- Main Street
- Author
- Sinclair Lewis
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Harcourt, Brace and Howe
- Place of Publication
- New York, NY
- Date Published
- 1920
- Pages
- 451
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- antique, vintage, first edition, first state, sinclair lewis, fiction, novel, main street, satire, Minnesota, domestic fiction
- Bookseller catalogs
- First Editions; 19th and Early 20th Century;
Terms of Sale
Givens Books
Books returned on case-by case basis only. No refund on shipping charges.
About the Seller
Givens Books
Biblio member since 2006
Lynchburg, Virginia
About Givens Books
Givens Books & Little Dickens is a family business that has been selling new, used, and rare books in Lynchburg, Virginia since 1976, and educational toys and teacher supplies since 1989. Our used book department strives to provide quality books on a wide variety of subjects. We also specialize in our local Lynchburg and Virginia history.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- 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....
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