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Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott
by LEWIS, Sinclair
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good- with no dust jacket
- Seller
-
Littleton, Colorado, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe. Very Good- with no dust jacket. 1920. First Edition. Hardcover. A first edition (1920) of Sinclair Lewis's much-admired novel, which tells the story of Carol Kennicott, a sophisticated woman who experiences small town living for the first time after her marriage. American-born, Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930. --- Likely second state, with undamaged type to page numbers 49 & 54 but battered "y" on p. 387, line 42. In full navy cloth-covered boards with titling in orange and on orange cover & spine blocks. Volume lacks the dust jacket. --- With considerable spots of soiling to covers, otherwise a tightly-bound, sound copy. Please note: loosened front & rear hinges have been carefully repaired on this item prior to this listing. ; 12mo - 7 to 7-1/2 in. tall; (8), 451 pages .
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.)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Bluebird Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 87057
- Title
- Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott
- Author
- LEWIS, Sinclair
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good- with no dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Harcourt, Brace and Howe
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1920
- Bookseller catalogs
- >>Pulitzer, Nobel, Booker, Nat Book Award Prize;
Terms of Sale
Bluebird Books
All sales sold on a satisfaction guaranteed basis--all we ask is that you notify us within 30 days of purchase that you would like to return an item.
About the Seller
Bluebird Books
Biblio member since 2005
Littleton, Colorado
About Bluebird Books
Bluebird Books is the bookselling business of Eric Mayer, operating from my base in Littleton, Colorado. I specialize in classic fiction and literature, books on birds and natural history, railroadiana, biography, history and many other genres. Bluebird Books features publications by the Modern Library and Everyman's Library. I offer free shipping on books shipped within the US via USPS Media Mail. INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: I recommend that you use Biblio.com for your international orders because they have formed a partnership with Asendia to allow for much more affordable shipping on parcels weighing under 5 lb. (about 2.26 kg).
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- 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....
- Second State
- used in book collecting to refer to a first edition, but after some change has been made in the printing, such as a correction,...
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...
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