Despite growing up in a small town in Minnesota, being simply one out of billions of Americans, Sinclair Lewis had a large impact on the history of the United States of America. Not only did he aspire to become one of the greatest American writers ever; he was also the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. But, not only was he the first American to win the award, he was also one of the lucky few that has achieved the "American Dream."".
Harry Sinclair Lewis was born on February 7, 1885 in the small town of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the youngest of three sons of Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis. His mother, Emma, was always ill, having to spend much of her time away from home. In 1891, when he was five years old, she died. In less than a year, his father Edwin, a country doctor, married a second time - this time to Isabel Warner. Unfortunately, "Harry Lewis' boyhood was curiously loveless, vexatious- (Schorer, 5).
Growing up, Lewis suffered a life of ridicule by not only his fellow peers, but also by his elders:.
He was homely, ill-coordinated, astigmatic, redheaded, a stumbling, noisy, awkward boy. He was inept at hunting and fishing, could hardly swim, was shunned in boys' games and sports, derided by his fellows and patronized by his elders. He was nearly friendless and was early given to solitary tramps about the countryside and to wide, indiscriminate reading. He yearned to be in some place both more colorful and more kindly than Sauk Centre (Schorer, 5).
Between 1908 and 1915, Lewis roamed the U.S., holding many odd jobs. After graduating from Yale in 1908, he began traveling miscellaneously around the country, going from Iowa to New York to San Francisco to Washington and back to New York again. During this time, Lewis tried everything from selling story plots to Jack London to working in publishing houses in New York and on multiple periodicals. He even began working on his very first novel.