The Innocents: a Story for Lovers

This early work by Sinclair Lewis was originally published in 1917 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, USA in 1885. A lonely and socially awkward child, Lewis tried unsuccessfully to run away from home, before entering Yale University in 1903. It was here that, in the Yale Courant and the Yale Literary Magazine, Lewis had his first works - mostly romantic poetry and short sketches - published. In 1920, while living in Washington D. C., Lewis had his first major success with the novel Main Street. Selling around two million copies within a few years, it catapulted Lewis into fame and riches, and he followed it with the critically acclaimed Babbitt (1922), and Arrowsmith (1925) - for which he received, but refused, the Pulitzer Prize.