10/20/2010 MinneCulture

In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. But in the early 1920s, Lewis, or "Red" as he was called, became a best-selling author with the publication of Main Street--an expose of small town life that celebrated its people while exposing its weaknesses. Lewis published 22 novels during his lifetime, but none matched the success of Main Street. Britt Aamodt investigates the life of Sinclair Lewis, from his upbringing in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to his death in Rome in 1951 from years of alcohol abuse.