The literary reputation of Sinclair Lewis rests on his best novels, which depict and often penetrate the confusion caused by America's change from a rural to an urban, industrial culture. Lewis's 125 short stories, however, seldom transcend the tastes of the popular magazine market for which they were written. When they do, though, they are good examples of American writing in the first half of the twentieth century.

Harry Sinclair Lewis was born on 7 February 1885 in the prairie village of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis. A rather awkward and lonely boy, he read Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, and Arthurian romances, though later his tastes would include H. G. Wells, H. L. Mencken, and Theodore Dreiser. Lewis began writing poetry and decided at the age of eleven to become a writer of short stories. He was, of course, to become a famous...