SINCLAIR LEWIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 8

SINCLAIR LEWIS

Sir,— I read Dr. French E. Oliver’s remarks on Sinclair Lewis in Saturday’s Sun and I have been seething all through the week-end. I do not know by what authority Dr. Oliver states that Mr. Lewis has written his own rascality into the book. I do not think it is true. And if it is true it is scarcely Christian of Dr. Oliver to besmirch a reputation in this fashion. But what I do object to is the statement: “He is not taken seriously in America. He is nothing but a literary mediocrity and a scandalmonger.” Now that is as gross a piece of impertinence as I have seen in print. Sinclair Lewis has been unkind in his brilliant lampooning of certain types of American and one can readily understand that he is far from popular with the Babbitry and those Americans who are not blessed with the sense of humour possessed by Mr. Lewis. But to call him a mediocrity is an insult to one’s intelligence. Lewis is admitted by critics on both sides of the Atlantic to be a virile force in American literature and a leader among the modern writers. And as the younger school of Americans is producing the most interesting literary fare in the world today, leadership in such a gifted band surely can in no sense of the word imply mediocrity. Presumably because Mr. Lewis has chosen to write about a rascally fellow named Gantry he is labelled by Dr. Oliver as a scandalmonger. In an attempt to follow his lino of reasoning I have come to the conclusion that Harold Bell Wright, whose books are as pure as undriven snow, must be the leading literary figure in America today. I am sending a copy of Dr. Oliver's remarks to Mr. Mencken. It will be amusing to read what ha has to say ab*ut it ajl. MANTRAP.