About
Fiction writer who explored the topics of materialism and capitalism in America and is best known for his 1920 work, Main Street. For his 1925 novel, Arrowsmith, he was offered the Pulitzer Prize (which he refused to accept); the work was later adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film.
Before Fame
At age thirteen, he tried unsuccessfully to run away from home and serve as a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1908.
Trivia
He was the 1930 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the first American to receive the honor.
Family Life
He married Vogue magazine editor, Grace Livingston Hegger, in 1914. The couple's son, Wells, died in combat during World War II. With his second wife, journalist Dorothy Thompson, Lewis had another son, Michael.
Associated With
Esteemed American author John Steinbeck also won a Nobel Prize for his literary work.
