Suggestions for Reading
1. Do you recognize Gopher Prairie as a type? Is Mr. Lewis’s picture photography, caricature, or the kind of portraiture that is art? Or to what degree do you find all these elements?
2. Is the main interest of the book in the story? in the characterization? in the satire? or in an element of propaganda?
3. What is to be said of the constructive theory of living proposed by the heroine? Is it better or worse than the standard that prevailed before she went to Gopher Prairie to live?
4. Explain the success of the book. What, if any, elements of permanent value do you find? What conspicuous defects?
Bibliography
- Our Mr. Wrenn. 1914.
- The Trail of the Hawk. 1915.
- The Job. 1917.
- The Innocents. 1917.
- Free Air. 1919.
- *Main Street. 1920.
- Babbitt. 1922.
Studies and Reviews
Am. M. 91 (’21): Apr., p. 16 (portrait). Bookm. 39 (’14): 242, 248 (portrait); 54 (’21): 9. (Archibald Marshall.) Freeman, 2 (’20): 237. Lit. Digest, 68 (’21): Feb. 12, p. 28 (portrait). New Repub. 25 (’20): 20. Sat. Rev. 132 (’21): 230. See also Book Review Digest, 1920.