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Elmer Gantry
''Elmer Gantry'' is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions. ''Elmer Gantry'' was first published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken. Background Lewis researched the novel by observing the work of various preachers in Kansas City in his so-called "Sunday School" meetings on Wednesdays. He first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." He is best known for his novels '' Main Street'' (1920), '' Babbitt'' (1922), '' Arrowsmith'' (1925), '' Elmer Gantry'' (1927), '' Dodsworth'' (1929), and '' It Can't Happen Here'' (1935). His works are known for their critical views of American capitalism and materialism in the interwar period. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, " fthere was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds." Early life Born February 7, 1885, in the village of Sauk Centre, Minneso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bachelor Of Divinity
In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. At the University of Cambridge, the Bachelor of Divinity degree is considered senior to the university's PhD degree. In the Catholic universities the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) is often called the Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD) and is treated as a postgraduate qualification. United Kingdom Current examples of where the BD degree is taught in the United Kingdom are: the University of St Andrews (where entrants must hold a degree in another discipline); Queen's University Belfast; the University of Aberdeen; the University of Edinburgh; and the University of Glasgow. At the University of Cambridge and previously at the University of Oxford, the BD is a postgraduate qualification, and applicant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Kearney (playwright)
Patrick Kearney (October 9, 1893, Columbus, Ohio – March 28, 1933, New York City) was an American playwright. Kearney started in the theatre as an actor. His first Broadway play as a playwright was the comedy ''A Man's Man'' which was moderately successful, opening on October 12, 1925 and running into January of the next year, with 120 performances. It was made into a 1929 silent film of the same name, now lost. Theodore Dreiser and Horace Liveright chose Kearney to write the stage adaption of Dreiser's novel ''An American Tragedy'' and Kearney did so. The play (of the same title), featuring Morgan Farley and Miriam Hopkins, had a successful run on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre in the 1926–1927 season. In 1927, the play initiated Los Angeles's legitimate theatre scene as the premier production of Wilkes' Vine Street Theatre (now the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre). ''An American Tragedy'' had a Broadway revival in 1931 at the Waldorf Theatre. Kearney's play of ''An America ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babbitt (novel)
''Babbitt'' (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satire, satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle class in the United States, middle class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by ''Babbitt'' was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Lewis in 1930. The novel has been filmed twice, Babbitt (1924 film), once as a silent in 1924 and remade as a talkie Babbitt (1934 film), in 1934. The word ''Babbitt'' has entered the English language as a "person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards". Plot ''The Smart Set''s review of the novel stated, "There is no plot whatever... Babbitt simply grows two years older as the tale unfolds."H. L. Mencken, Mencken, H. L., "Portrait of an American Citizen," ''The Smart Set'' 69 (October 1922) pp. 138–139 The first seven chapters follow Babbitt's life over the course of a si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gideon Planish
''Gideon Planish'' is a 1943 novel by American writer Sinclair Lewis. The novel tells the story of Gideon Planish, an unprincipled social climber who becomes involved in various shady philanthropic organizations in his quest for stature without accountability. The work did not fare as well with critics as some of Lewis' earlier social novels, and is considered one of his minor works. Plot summary ''Gideon Planish'' takes aim at less-than-honorable fundraising organizations. In a similar manner of his other works, the reader follows the self-titled character through his life and numerous (but slightly related) professions dealing with professional "organizationality" which is better known as the for-profit industry of pompous fundraising run by shady "philanthropists" running a wide variety of guilds, committees, foundations, leagues and councils for selfish and greedy purposes. The focus of the book begins with a young Planish demonstrating a knack for public speaking, and these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Who Knew Coolidge
''The Man Who Knew Coolidge'' is a 1928 satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis. It features the return of several characters from Lewis' previous works, including George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Additionally, it sees a return to the familiar territory of Lewis' fictional American city of Zenith, in the state of Winnemac. Presented as six long, uninterrupted monologues by Lowell Schmaltz, a travelling salesman in office supplies, the eponymous first section was originally published in ''The American Mercury'' in 1927. Plot ''The Man Who Knew Coolidge'' (subtitled "Being the Soul of Lowell Schmaltz, Constructive and Nordic Citizen") is recounted in a series of six long, uninterrupted monologues by the sub-titular Schmaltz. As the reader progresses through each, Schmaltz gradually reveals additional details about his background, circumstances, and character. Intended by Lewis as a light intermission between the more substantial ''Elmer Gantry'' and his 1929 novel, ''Dodsworth'', ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 31,800 undergraduate and 13,200 graduate students. Berkeley ranks among the world's top universities. A founding member of the Association of American Universities, Berkeley hosts many leading research institutes dedicated to science, engineering, and mathematics. The university founded and maintains close relationships with three national laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos, and has played a prominent role in many scientific advances, from the Manhattan Project and the discovery of 16 chemical elements to breakthroughs in computer science and genomics. Berkeley i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Schorer
Mark Schorer (May 17, 1908 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Biography Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. During his academic career, he held positions at Dartmouth, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he chaired the Department of English from 1960 to 1965."Author Schorer, 69, Dies," ''Oakland Tribune'', August 13, 1977 p. 42, col. 3 A leading critic of his time, he was best known for his work, ''Sinclair Lewis: An American Life''. Schorer was also the author of many short stories, which appeared in magazines such as ''The New Yorker'', ''Harpers'', ''The Atlantic Monthly'', and ''Esquire''. Among his honors were three Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright professorship at the University of Pisa and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He also was elected to the American Academy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publishers Weekly List Of Bestselling Novels In The United States In The 1920s
This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s, as determined by ''Publishers Weekly''. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1920 through 1929. The standards set for inclusion in the lists – which, for example, led to the exclusion of the novels in the ''Harry Potter'' series from the lists for the 1990s and 2000s – are currently unknown. 1920 # ''The Man of the Forest'' by Zane Grey # '' Kindred of the Dust'' by Peter B. Kyne # '' The Re-Creation of Brian Kent'' by Harold Bell Wright # '' The River's End'' by James Oliver Curwood # ''A Man for the Ages'' by Irving Bacheller # '' Mary-Marie'' by Eleanor H. Porter # '' The Portygee'' by Joseph C. Lincoln # '' The Great Impersonation'' by E. Phillips Oppenheim # '' The Lamp in the Desert'' by Ethel M. Dell # '' Harriet and the Piper'' by Kathleen Norris 1921 # '' Main Street'' by Sinclair Lewis # '' The Brimming Cup'' by Dorothy Canfield # '' The Mysterious Rider'' by Zane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or "evil inclination." In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who has rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons. In the Quran, Shaitan, also known as Iblis, is an entity made of fire who was cast out of Heaven because he refused to bow before the newly created Adam and incites humans to sin by infecting their minds with ''waswās'' ("evil suggestions"). A figure known as ''ha-satan'' ("the satan") first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a heavenly prosecutor, subordinate to Yahweh (God), who prosecutes the nation of Jud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues for eight years, where he was an average hitter and a good fielder known for his base-running. Converting to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry. He gradually developed his skills as a pulpit evangelist in the Midwest and then, during the early 20th century, he became the nation's most famous evangelist with his colloquial sermons and frenetic delivery. Sunday held widely reported campaigns in America's largest cities, and he attracted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banned In Boston
"Banned in Boston" is a phrase that was employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, Boston officials had wide authority to ban works featuring "objectionable" content, and often banned works with sexual content or foul language. This even extended to the $5 bill from the 1896 "Educational" series of banknotes featuring allegorical figures that were partially nude. History Boston was founded in the early 17th century by Puritans, who held strict moral standards. Boston's second major wave of immigrants, Irish Catholics, began arriving in the 1820s and also held conservative moral beliefs, particularly regarding sex. Early instances of works being "banned in Boston" extend back at least to the year 1651. That year, William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts—Massachusetts' great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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