Name	Aquitaine
Reg logo	Aquitaine-logo.png
Map	Rimex-France location Aquitaine.svg
Flag	Aquitaine_flag.svg
Capital	Bordeaux
Area	41308
Population	3150890
Pop ref	INSEE
Pop date	2008
Pop rank	6th
Gdp	85.9
Gdp year	2007
Gdp ref
Website	aquitaine.fr
Leader	Alain Rousset
Leader party	PS
Departments	5
Dept1	Dordogne
Dept2	Gironde
Dept3	Landes
Dept4	Lot-et-Garonne
Dept5	Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Nuts	FR61
Iso region	FR-B }}

Aquitaine (, ; ; ), archaic ''Guyenne''/''Guienne'' (Occitan: ''Guiana''), is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. In the Middle Ages Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.

History

Ancient Age

There are traces of human settlement by prehistoric peoples, especially in the Périgord, but the earliest attested inhabitants in the south-west were the Aquitani, who were not proper Celtic people, but more akin to the Iberians (see Gallia Aquitania). Although a number of different languages and dialects were in use in the area during ancient times, it is most likely that the prevailing language of Aquitaine during the late pre-historic to Roman period was an early form of the Basque language. This has been demonstrated by various Aquitanian names and words that were recorded by the Romans, and which are currently easily readable as Basque. Whether this Aquitanian language (Proto-Basque) was a remnant of a Vasconic language group that once extended much farther, or whether it was generally limited to the Aquitaine/Basque region is not currently known. One reason the language of Aquitaine is important is because Basque is the last surviving non-Indo-European language in western Europe and it has had some effect on the languages around it, including Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French.

The original Aquitania (named after the inhabitants) comprised at the time of Caesar's conquest of Gaul the area bounded by the Garonne River, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic ocean. The name may stem from Latin 'aqua', maybe derived from the town "Aquae Augustae", "Aquae Tarbellicae" or just "Aquis" (Dax, Akize in modern Basque) or as a more general geographical feature. Under Augustus' Roman rule, since 27 BC the province of Aquitania was further stretched to the north till the River Loire, so including proper Gaul tribes along with old Aquitani south of the Garonne (cf. Novempopulania and Gascony) within the same region. In 392, the Roman imperial provinces were restructured and Aquitania Prima, Aquitania Secunda and Aquitania Tertia (or Novempopulania) were established in south-western Gaul.

Early Middle Ages

Accounts on Aquitania during the Early Middle Ages are blurry, lacking precision, but there was much unrest. The Visigoths were called into Gaul as ''foederati'', but eventually established themselves as the de-facto rulers in south-west Gaul as central Roman rule collapsed. The Visigoths established their capital in Toulouse, but their actual tenure on Aquitaine was feeble. Furthermore, in 507 they were expelled south to Hispania after their defeat in the Battle of Vouillé by the Franks, who became the new rulers in the area. Two regions come to be distinguished after the Frank expansion to the south, Vasconia/Gascony and Aquitaine, with the former comprising the previous Novempopulania and the latter the territory lying between the Loire and Garonne rivers.

The Franks likewise had difficulty controlling their south-western marches, i.e. Vasconia, in turn setting up a Duchy as of AD 602 to hold a grip on the area, appointing a duke in charge. These dukes were quite detached from central Frank overlordship, sometimes governing as independent rulers with strong ties to their Vascon kinsmen south of the Pyrenees. As of 660, the duchies of Aquitaine and Vasconia were united under the rule of Felix of Aquitaine to form an independent polity. Despite its nominal submission to the Merovingians, the ethnic make-up of new realm Aquitaine wasn´t Frankish, but Gallo-Roman north of the Garonne and main towns and Basque, especially south of the Garonne.

A united Vascon-Aquitanian realm reached its heyday under Odo the Great's rule. The independent status of the realm might have continued but for an attack by the Muslim troops who had just invaded the Visigoth Hispania. After successfully fending them off in Toulouse in 719 he was defeated close to Bordeaux, with the hosts under Abd-al-Raḥmân al-Ghafiqi command ransacking the lands south of the Garonne. Odo was required to pledge allegiance to the Frankish Charles Martel in exchange for help against the Muslim forces, and Vascon-Aquitanian self-rule first came to an end by 742, and definitely in 768 after the assassination of Waifer. In the period previous and after the Muslim thrust, the Basques are often cited in several accounts stirring against Frankish attempts to subdue Aquitaine (stretching up to Toulouse) and Vasconia, pointing to a not preponderant but clearly significant Basque presence in the former. 'Romans' are also cited as living in the cities of Aquitaine, as opposed to the Franks.

In 781, Charlemagne decided to proclaim his son Louis King of Aquitaine within the Carolingian Empire, ruling over a realm comprising the Duchy of Aquitaine and the Duchy of Vasconia (''Et 3 Calend Augusti habuit concilium magnum in Aquis, et constituit duos filius sans reges Pippinum et Clotarium, Pippinum super Aquitaniam et Wasconiam''). He suppressed various Vascon uprisings, even venturing into the lands of Pamplona past the Pyrenees after ravaging the Gascony, with a view to imposing his authority in the Vasconia south of Pyrenees too. According to his biography, he achieved everything he wanted and after staying overnight in Pamplona, on his way back his army was attacked in Roncesvaux in 812, but didn't suffer defeat thanks to the precautions he had taken.

Seguin (Sihiminus, Semen...), count of Bordeaux and Duke of Vasconia, seemed to have attempted a detachment from the Frankish central authority on Charlemagne's death. The new emperor Louis the Pious reacted by removing him from his capacity, which stirred the Vascons into rebellion. The king in turn sent his troops over to the territory, submitting them in two campaigns and even killing the duke, while his family crossed the Pyrenees and kept raising against the Frankish power. In 824, the 3rd Battle of Roncesvaux took place, where counts Aeblus and Aznar, Frankish vassals from the Duchy of Vasconia sent by the new King of Aquitaine Pepin, were captured by the joint forces of Iñigo Arista and the Banu Qasi.

Before Pepin's death, emperor Louis had appointed a new king in 832, his son Charles the Bald, while the Aquitanian lords elected king Pepin II. This contest for the head of the kingdom led to a constant period of war among Charles, loyal to his father and the Carolingian power, and Pepin II, who relied more on the support of Vascon and Aquitanian lords.

The title "Duke of Aquitaine" was held by the counts of Poitiers from the 10th to the 12th century.

It passed to France in 1137 when the duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine married Louis VII of France, but their marriage was annulled in 1152 and when Eleanor's new husband became Henry II of England in 1154, the area became an English possession.

Links between Aquitaine and England were strengthened, with large quantities of wine produced in southwestern France being exported to London, Southampton, and other English ports.

Aquitaine remained English until the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453, when it was annexed by France. From the 13th century until the French Revolution, Aquitaine was usually known as Guyenne.

The region served as a stronghold for the Protestant Huguenots during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who suffered persecution at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. The Huguenots called upon the English crown for assistance against the Catholic Cardinal Richelieu.

Demographics

Aquitaine consists of 3,150,890 inhabitants equivalent to 6% of the total French population.

Sport

The region is home to many successful sports teams. In particular worth mentioning are:

Football

FC Girondins de Bordeaux, one of France's most successful association football teams.

Pau FC

FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin

Rugby Union is particularly popular in the region. Clubs include:

Aviron Bayonnais

Biarritz Olympique, runners-up in the 2005-6 Heineken Cup.

Union Bordeaux-Bègles

Section Paloise

US Dax

Basketball

Élan Béarnais Pau-Orthez one of the most successful French basketball clubs

Bull-fighting is also popular in the region.

Major Surfing championships regularly take place on Aquitaine's coast.

See also

Aquitania

Basque people

Basque Country (historical territory)

Bordeaux wine regions

Gascony

Occitania

Notes

External links

Regional Council of Aquitaine Short guide to Aquitaine with main tourist attractions

CSfrance.amb-usa.fr

Category:Regions of France Category:NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union

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William IX (; ) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived.

Ducal career

William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

Early career, 1088–1102

William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

The Duchess was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded William to grant him land in Northern Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary . This became Fontevraud Abbey, which would enjoy the patronage of William's granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and would remain important until its dissolvement during the French Revolution.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118

William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (''Dangerosa''), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname ''La Maubergeonne''), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

Later career, 1118–1126

Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

Poetic career

William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour — a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (''Farai chansoneta nueva'') is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different (Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (''Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh'') has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (''lo coms de Peitieus''). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics.

An anonymous 13th-century ''vida'' of William remembers him thus:

It is possible, however, that at least in part it is not based on facts, but on literal interpretation of his songs, written in first person; in Song 5, for example, he describes how he deceived two women.

His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and François Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in ''Canto VIII'':

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers, had brought the song up out of Spain with the singers and viels...

In ''Spirit of Romance'' Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the troubadours":

William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: ''Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz'' (''Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve''). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much: chivalry and pride; and since it pleases God, I accept it all, that He may keep me by Him.

I enjoin my friends, upon my death, all to come and do me great honor, since I have held joy and delight far and near, and in my abode.

Thus I give up joy and delight, and squirrel and grey and sable furs.

Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs":

Then the Poitevin duke many times related, with rhythmic verses and witty measures, the miseries of his captivity, before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies.

See also

Dukes of Aquitaine family tree

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

{{s-ttl| title = Duke of Aquitaine | years = 1088–1126 }} {{s-ttl| title = Count of Poitiers | years = 1088–1126 }}

Category:1071 births Category:1126 deaths Category:House of Poitiers Category:Dukes of Aquitaine Category:Dukes of Gascony Category:Counts of Poitiers Category:Christians of the Crusade of 1101 Category:Patrons of literature Category:People excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church Category:Occitan poets Category:Troubadours Category:Crusade literature

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name	Sinclair Lewis
birth name	Harry Sinclair Lewis
birth date	February 07, 1885
birth place	Sauk Centre, Minnesota
death date	January 10, 1951
death place	Rome, Italy
occupation	Novelist, Playwright, Short story writer
nationality	American
awards	}}

Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values, as well as for their strong characterizations of modern working women.

He has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a Great Americans series postage stamp.

Biography

Childhood and education

Born in the village of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis began reading books at a young age and kept a diary. He had two siblings, Fred (born 1875) and Claude (born 1878). His father, Edwin J. Lewis, was a physician and a stern disciplinarian who had difficulty relating to his sensitive, unathletic third son. Lewis's mother, Emma Kermott Lewis, died in 1891. The following year, Edwin Lewis married Isabel Warner, whose company young Lewis apparently enjoyed. Throughout his lonely boyhood, the ungainly Lewis — tall, extremely thin, stricken with acne and somewhat popeyed — had trouble gaining friends and pined after various local girls. At the age of 13 he unsuccessfully ran away from home, wanting to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War.

In late 1902 Lewis left home for a year at Oberlin Academy (the then-preparatory department of Oberlin College) to qualify for acceptance by Yale University. While at Oberlin, he developed a religious enthusiasm that waxed and waned for much of his remaining teenage years. He entered Yale in 1903 but did not receive his bachelor's degree until 1908, having taken time off to work at Helicon Home Colony, Upton Sinclair's cooperative-living colony in Englewood, New Jersey, and to travel to Panama. Lewis's unprepossessing looks, "fresh" country manners and seemingly self-important loquacity made it difficult for him to win and keep friends at Oberlin and Yale. He did initiate a few relatively long-lived friendships among students and professors, some of whom recognized his promise as a writer.

Early career

Lewis's earliest published creative work—romantic poetry and short sketches—appeared in the ''Yale Courant'' and the ''Yale Literary Magazine'', of which he became an editor. After graduation Lewis moved from job to job and from place to place in an effort to make ends meet, write fiction for publication and to chase away boredom. While working for newspapers and publishing houses (and for a time at the Carmel-by-the-Sea, California writers' colony), he developed a facility for turning out shallow, popular stories that were purchased by a variety of magazines. He also earned money by selling plots to Jack London, including one for the latter's unfinished novel ''The Assassination Bureau, Ltd''.

Lewis's first published book was ''Hike and the Aeroplane'', a Tom Swift-style potboiler that appeared in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham.

Sinclair Lewis's first serious novel, ''Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man'', appeared in 1914, followed by ''The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life'' (1915) and ''The Job'' (1917). That same year also saw the publication of another potboiler, ''The Innocents: A Story for Lovers'', an expanded version of a serial story that had originally appeared in ''Woman's Home Companion''. ''Free Air'', another refurbished serial story, was published in 1919.

Marriage and family

In 1914 Lewis married Grace Livingston Hegger, an editor at ''Vogue'' magazine. They had one son, Wells Lewis (1917–1944), named after British author H. G. Wells. Wells Lewis was killed while serving in the military in World War II.

Lewis divorced Grace in 1925. On May 14, 1928, he married Dorothy Thompson, a political newspaper columnist. Later in 1928, he and Dorothy purchased a second home in rural Vermont. They had a son, Michael Lewis, in 1930. Their marriage had virtually ended by 1937, and they divorced in 1942. Michael Lewis became an actor, and died in 1975 at age 44.

Commercial success

Upon moving to Washington, D.C., Lewis devoted himself to writing. As early as 1916, he began taking notes for a realistic novel about small-town life. Work on that novel continued through mid-1920, when he completed ''Main Street'', which was published on October 23, 1920. As his biographer Mark Schorer wrote, the phenomenal success of ''Main Street'' "was the most sensational event in twentieth-century American publishing history." Based on sales of his prior books, Lewis's most optimistic projection was a sale of 25,000 copies. In the first six months of 1921, ''Main Street'' sold 180,000 copies, and within a few years, sales were estimated at two million. According to Richard Lingeman, "''Main Street'' earned Sinclair Lewis about three million current [2002] dollars". Lewis followed up this first great success with ''Babbitt'' (1922), a novel that satirized the American commercial culture and boosterism. The story was set in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith, Winnemac, a setting to which Lewis would return in future novels, including ''Gideon Planish'' and ''Dodsworth''.

Lewis continued his success in the 1920s with ''Arrowsmith'' (1925), a novel about the challenges faced by an idealistic doctor. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (which Lewis refused). Adapted as a 1931 Hollywood film directed by John Ford and starring Ronald Colman, it was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Next Lewis published ''Elmer Gantry'' (1927), which depicted an evangelical minister as deeply hypocritical. The novel was denounced by many religious leaders and banned in some U.S. cities. Adapted for the screen more than a generation later, the novel was the basis of the 1960 movie starring Burt Lancaster, who earned a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.

Lewis closed out the decade with ''Dodsworth'' (1929), a novel about the most affluent and successful members of American society. He portrayed them as leading essentially pointless lives in spite of great wealth and advantages. The book was adapted for the Broadway stage in 1934 by Sidney Howard, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1936 film version. Directed by William Wyler and a great success at the time, the film is still highly regarded. In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, and in 2005 ''Time'' magazine named it one of the "100 Best Movies" of the past 80 years.

During the late 1920s and 1930s, Lewis wrote many short stories for a variety of magazines and publications. "Little Bear Bongo" (1936), a tale about a bear cub who wanted to escape the circus in search of a better life in the real world, was published in ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine. The story was acquired by Walt Disney Pictures in 1940 for a possible feature film. World War II sidetracked those plans until 1947. Disney used the story (now titled "Bongo") as part of its feature ''Fun and Fancy Free''.

Alcoholism

After an alcoholic binge in 1937, Lewis checked into the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for treatment. His doctors gave Lewis a blunt assessment that he needed to decide "whether he was going to live without alcohol or die by it, one or the other." Lewis checked out after 10 days, lacking, one of his physicians wrote to a colleague, any "fundamental understanding of his problem."

Later years

After winning the Nobel Prize, Lewis wrote eleven more novels, ten of which appeared in his lifetime. The best remembered is ''It Can't Happen Here'', a novel about the election of a fascist to the American presidency.

''Kingsblood Royal'' (1947) is set in the fictional city Grand Republic, Minnesota, an enlarged and updated version of Zenith. Based on the Sweet Affair in Chicago, in which an African-American doctor was denied the chance to purchase a house in a "white" section of the city, ''Kingsblood Royal'' was a powerful and very early contribution to the civil rights movement.

Lewis died in Rome on January 10, 1951, aged 65, from advanced alcoholism. His cremated remains were buried in Sauk Centre. A final novel, ''World So Wide'' (1951), was published posthumously.

William Shirer, a friend and admirer of Lewis, disputes accounts that Lewis died of alcoholism ''per se''. He reported that Lewis had a heart attack and that his doctors advised him to stop drinking if he wanted to live. Lewis did not, and perhaps could not, stop; he died when his heart stopped.

In summing up Lewis' career, Shirer concludes, "It has become rather commonplace for so-called literary critics to write off Sinclair Lewis as a novelist. Compared to...Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Faulkner...Lewis lacked style. Yet his impact on modern American life...was greater than all of the other four writers together."

Parodies and Satires

In ''The New Yorker'', Wolcott Gibbs once published a spoof of Lewis' novel ''Cass Timberlane'' which he titled "Shad Ampersand."

See also

Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home

The Palmer House (Sauk Centre)

Works

Notes

References

Mark Schorer, ''Sinclair Lewis: An American Life'' (McGraw-Hill, 1961)

Richard R. Lingeman, ''Sinclair Lewis: Rebel From Main Street'' (Borealis Books, 2002)

Further reading

Lingeman, Richard ed. ''Sinclair Lewis: Main Street & Babbitt'' (Library of America, 1992) ISBN 978-0-940450-61-5

Lingeman, Richard ed. ''Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth'' (Library of America, 2002) ISBN 978-1-931082-08-2

D. J. Dooley, ''The Art of Sinclair Lewis,'' 1967.

Martin Light, ''The Quixotic Vision of Sinclair Lewis,'' 1975.

''Modern Fiction Studies,'' vol. 31.3, Autumn 1985, special issues on Sinclair Lewis.

''Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference,'' 1985.

Martin Bucco, ''Main Street: The Revolt of Carol Kennicott,'' 1993.

James M. Hutchisson, ''The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920–1930,'' 1996.

Glen A. Love, ''Babbitt: An American Life''

Stephen R. Pastore, ''Sinclair Lewis: A Descriptive Bibliography,'' 1997.

Stephen R. Pastore, ''Sinclair Lewis: A Descriptive Bibliography, 2d ed.'' 2009.

External links

Online collection of works

Babbitt from American Studies at the University of Virginia.

Works by Sinclair Lewis at Project Gutenberg Australia

his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters.

Sinclair Lewis Society

Autobiography

"Sinclair Lewis: The Man From Main Street" WBGU-PBS documentary

Hutchisson, ''The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920-1930'', Penn State Press, 2001 ISBN 0-271-02123-3

A Tribute To Two Sinclairs Sinclair Lewis & Upton Sinclair''

Category:1885 births Category:1951 deaths Category:20th-century novelists Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Italy Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American expatriates in Italy Category:American Nobel laureates Category:American novelists Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American satirists Category:American short story writers Category:Nobel laureates in Literature Category:Oberlin College alumni Category:People from New Haven, Connecticut Category:Prometheus Award winning authors Category:Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winners Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Minnesota Category:Writers from Washington, D.C. Category:Yale University alumni

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