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Show MAIN STREET BY SINCLAIR LEWIS. For four years or rather for thirty- five years Sinclair Lewia haa been ! gathering: the materiul for his new nov-, nov-, el, "Main Street." The book ts a defi-; defi-; nition not merely of one Main street, t but of ail of them, from Syracuse to j San Iicko. The cltixen of any town of ' from one to five thousand will recog-i recog-i nice his nelKhbors and his own aspira ! tions, whether his town happens to be In Ohio, in Kansas, or in Montana that is. If Mr. .Lewis' contention Is correct. cor-rect. Hia contention is that In this age of standardization of Fords, mo-!viea, mo-!viea, syndicated newspaper features, .'national brands of ready-made clothes -and ready-made ideas all our Main 'streets are becoming amaginfcly and ! perilously alike. I Whether or not he U correct, certainly cer-tainly Mr. .Lewis has observed the (American scene with unusual broad-I broad-I nesa. He wns born in a small town In the Middle West; he went to Yale; he was during; ten years a newspaperman j in Connecticut, Iowa and California, a magazine editor in Washing-tun. D. C then editor for publishers in New York. That made seven quite varied phases of 'American background for a beginning. lurinv the past four and a half ! yea rs. Mr. Lewi has been traveling; through all of the country from i'alm I Heat h to Seattle, from Ios Angeles to I lloston. living from one nay to slg ! months In the most diverse places. He has during these four years lived In small towns hi Minnesota, Montana, r'nltfrtfnie Oh I and nn C:ine Cod: In the cities-of Seattle, Pan Francisco, Minneapolis, tit. I'aul, Washington. New York. Hut the motorcar has afforded af-forded him the best means of observation. obser-vation. He has driven from end to end of twenty-six states. East, West, North and South, encountered equally the large cities and the tiny back 'country villages of the ordinary routes, stop, j ping over wherever his Interest was aroused. j I All this time he has definitely been making plans and note ror -Main I ( Street." Though through this period ; he has been best-known as a writer of short stories for the magazines, such work has been but incidental to prep- aration for this Ions;, serious, sharply I honest novel which Harrourt, Brace land Howe are Just publishing. Mr. Lewis' conclusions are likely to arouse both wide approval snd wide (antagonism. He concludes that all our American life is threatened by a coma 'of respectable mediocrity; that we have shut our eyes to the eager ! thoughts running through Europe; thst j our self-satisfaction is a dangerous 'drug; that for all our proud "boost-, ! ins," the typical Main street town Is physically ugly and spiritualty aoubt-tful; aoubt-tful; and that In each town there are a : few people who often um-onciousrv i are waging a battle for beauty which , is at once more dramatic and In com -' parably more Important than any of the melodramatic struggles of war and ' finance snd pnychlc mysteries. j Certainly whatever opposition his . i thesis arouses, his picture of the ea,?er Ismail town will be to tens of thousands ! of men and women a revelation of their own problems, their own rebellion ! against safe tedlousneas, and a hint of j possible ways out. I But "Main ttreef ia not In the least la propagandist, a "problem" novel. The problems are Inherent In the honewtlv; I sketched background, but the heart ofi I the book la the living picture of certain-l people who are to be met on every ! Main street, and therein the book la nut! a mere polemic diacuasion, but distinctly distinct-ly a work of art. |