Babbitt & Main Street

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis is a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle-class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Lewis in 1930. The word 'Babbitt' entered the English language as a 'person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards'. Main Street is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis, and published in 1920 and was nominated for Pulitzer Prize in 1921. It tells the story of Carol Milford, a woman of ambition and unconventional thinking, who is determined to change the Main Street into a better place.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.