Babbitt: Sinclairs Lewis’s Feat

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12199, 25 July 1925, Page 12

Babbitt: Sinclairs Lewis’s Feat

A NSW WORD IN THE LANGUAGE

Of all signs of ■ literary puccess 1 should think the most: emphatic is when an author 1 adds a word or a phrase 1 o tbs "common speech (writesMr T. P. O’Connor, in “T.P.’a WeekHickens did so again and again; Bumble, is, always and’for all people,r- synonym for netty officialdom; and ope has opiy to speak of a man na r, Mtekirber to sum nlm Up a* m an irresponsible optimist, waiting for; something to turn up, In our own ■ day*. I can think of only one novelist 1 , who has achieved such a characterisation, and he is Sinclair Lewis. In “Babbitt” Mr Lewis fixed the type of the minor American business man—the believer in “hundred per: pent, efficiency" and similar “slogans,” tpe enthusiastic member of a rural Rotary Club, very earnest, very seuti-' mental: rather absurd, but at-bottom a likeable person. Now “Babbitt” has passed into the American language. When Mr Mencken, the vigorous editor of the “American .Mercury,” wishes to castigate the Philistines he refers to them, contemptuously and comprehensively,, as “the Babbittry.” Mr Aldous Huxley, in his new ; novel, “Those Barren Leaves.” suggests that stereotyped education may destroy racial differ-; . ehcefi and produce a world entirely inhabited by Babbitts. Babbitt has come to stay. I run the risk of seeming to contra-

diet this assertion, therefore, when l retail tjie following store which has gone the rounds of literary New YorkIt is directed rather against the Bab-' bitts.. themselves . than - against' Mf ; Lewis, , . ‘i‘ ]y 4, v r A .young man ip a Mtcidto #totertu Awntoi town had just, Men'Elected,, (to .too local Rotery <pub, /find in afk--' powledgipent he remarked: ■ “I am hnpfiy to have retorted Mis honouf, and T wish to thank'-Ml. - Hptarians everywhere, including George Babbitt,” - ft 4l A Iftti® anothw.memtor otoed the president of tot JfisbU- “‘Who ' is tljat' fellow: BdhhlttFff I.don’t remem': her ever having metfhim”’. 1 ' “Oh. don’t von mutwj” replied the president. “Tliat’s/too hero of a book by Upton Sinclair/” ■ * \_4, The .eh4 ipf, “Mam Street” Mgs anatoed tost-telli' 1 ing- success-early' in life; 1 -it is only forty years since hi was horn in Sank Center, Minneapolis. His chief, liter-aryindmiratiort-is (of Mr 8.-G. Wells. 1 and his only apn is- named-Wells Lewis, in honour of/the English novelist, Mr -Lewis 'is said never—to- - put pen to' paper unless 1 to sign'his raffle; -nil his books are tapped ont> at high speed oft a tyneTyriter. To his'ffiends lie is •SRkd”; Tftwis.’ •■.. - . - . t , His latest book, “Martin Arrowsmith.’’ has for ils l qentraj figure: n bacteriolokisti It is: at' least' as'! fin- | a 1 noveyto “Babbitt.” '