Martin Arrowsmith, a Hero with a Passion for Scientific Truth

In the summer of 1922, Harry Sinclair Lewis decided to write Arrowsmith after he listened to a debate on medical teaching and science. He was introduced that evening to Dr. Paul Henry de Kruif, a young bacteriologist who had worked in the laboratories of the Rockeffeller Institute for Medial Research.

In the winter of 1922, from a discussion held between Lewis and Dr. de Kruif, a plan resulted to collaborate in the writing of the novel. (Spayd xvii). Arrowsmith is a biographical novel, Martin Arrowsmith as a hero with a passion for scientific truth. Lewis portrays Martin against charlatanism and materialism in the medical profession, which is the target of Lewis's satire. Lewis and de Kruif saw satire as an effort to construct rather than destruct criticism of a cross section of life. (Spayd xxii). The novel "is a comment on the world of American medicine and biological research, insofar as it makes use of scientific values and preoccupations, it reflects clearly the attitudes of de Kruif." (Rosenberg 43). The publication of Arrowsmith began in March, 1925. Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel, but he refused it "as a protest against the restrictive terms of the award, which in his estimation places too much stress on purpose, and not enough on art, in fiction." (Spayd xii).

In the following paragraphs, I will discuss Dr. Paul Henry de Kruif's collaboration in Arrowsmith, and Harry Sinclair Lewis's sensitivity in recognizing that the success of the novel was largely because of de Kruif's contribution to the novel. (de Kruif 97).

First of all, Lewis was completely ignorant about experimental medical science, with which Arrowsmith was to be chiefly concerned and, unless he understood an enormous amount of independent research, he could not have proceeded without the help of Dr. de Kruif, who was a master of this material. Consequently, Lewis arranged a tour of the Caribbean with de Kruif, where Arrowsmith was going to take place, and then traveled to England where he began to write the novel. (Schorer 18).

The material for the fable was supplied by de Kruif, who took his responsibility on the writing of the novel very seriously. The book is based on his experiences, he provided Lewis with the novel's technical descriptions of bacteriology, irnmunology and epidemiology. But de Kruif served in a more imaginative capacity than that of mere technical informant. (Spayd xxi). In Sinclair Lewis, Mr. Rosenberg states that de Kruif's attitudes of hostility toward the medical profession build a kind of friction between laboratory and clinical medicine that is also reflected in many of the incidents and emphases in Arrowsmith. (43). He worked intensely with Lewis for months in order to seek material for the book. De Kruif also provided a history of the scientific careers of Max Gottlieb and Martin Arrowsmith, which he exerted from his own experiences and associations. On the cruise, for example, one of his duties was to work out the complete professional histories of both Arrowsmith and Gottlieb, and to sketch those of lesser characters. From his own various experiences in medical science, he could produce prototypes that would suit the conflicts of the developing plot. (Spayd xxi).

Martin, the man character finds inspiration in Max's ideas and too shares his curiosity and indignation at the imprecise. Lewis created Max Gottlieb with the collaboration provided by de Kruif. De Kruif states that Gottlieb was a mixture of Frederick G. Novy, professor of bacteriology and Jacques Loeb, who de Kruif admired at the Rockefeller Institute. De Kruif presented Gottlieb as a bacteriologist and immunologist, such as Novy, not a physiologist like Loeb, his personality represent the articulate an sardonic German. "De Kruif describes Gottlieb as a 'muddy melange' of Novy and Loeb." Max Gottlieb is a researcher at the prestigious McGurk Institute in New York, which was also the creation of de Kruif, of the Rockefeller Institute he attended. (Rosenberg 46). Dr. de Kruif also contributed to the sketch of Leora's life and death, who was Martin's wife, a replica of Rhea, de Kruif's wife. (de Kruif 92).

De Kruif selected the scientific eminentoes with whom it would be instructional for Lewis to associate for the writing of the book. They both had the honor of dining with Sir William Bayliss and physiologist, Sir Ernest Starling, in Starling's house. They also met Dr. H.H. Dale at the laboratories of the Medical Research Council at Hampstead, P.P. Laidlaw, who was to become a fighter against dog distemper, and met with Mr. Clifford Dobell, a famous protistologist, who provided de Kruif with information on the old Leeuwenhoek, the first man to see microbes. (de Kruif 93-95).

Furthermore, Sinclair Lewis could not have been more sensitive to the collaboration of Dr. Paul de Kruif, as de Kruif writes in his memoir, The Sweeping Wing:

"Next day at the Columbia Club, Red, Alf, and Melville Cane, who was the firm's lawyer as well as a good poet, met with me to draw up the contract for a medical novel, yet unnamed. That day Red could not have been more generous. He could not have made me more happy. Terms: full collaboration by Sinclair Lewis and Paul de Kruif, with me sharing top billing, my name on the title page and cover. All royalties--book, serial and movie--to be split fifty-fifty. This was too generous..."

On February 13, 1923, Lewis wrote to his publishers at Harcourt, Brace, the letter was written from somewhere off the coast of Curacco:

"It gives joy to inform you that de Kruif is perfection. He has not only an astonishing grasp of scientific detail , he has a philosophy behind it, and the imagination of a fiction writer..." Lewis told his publishers that Arrowsmith (which at the time had the working title The Barbarian) would be his best book, largely because of de Kruif's contribution. (www.aliciapatterson.org/APF2003/Henig/Henig.html).

In 1925, on the page after the title page, Lewis extracted a broad acknowledgment for Dr. Paul de Kruif's technical assistance. Sinclair Lewis considered that his success on Arrowsmith was due greatly to the fact that de Kruif had collaborated his scientific knowledge and biological research to the novel. (de Kruif 97). Lewis confessed that he was indebted for most of the bacteriological and medical material in the story, and equally for his suggestions in the planning of the tale--for his realization of the characters as living people, for his philosophy as a scientist. (www.aliciapatterson.org/APF2003/Henig/Henig.html).

Concluding, in the course of Arrowsmith, Lewis describes many aspects of medical training, medical practice, scientific research, scientific fraud, medical ethics, public health, and of personal/professional conflicts that are still relevant today. Professional jealousy, institutional pressures, greed, stupidity, and negligence are all satirically depicted, and Martin himself is exasperatingly self-involved. There is also tireless dedication, and respect for the scientific method and intellectual honesty. But, there would have been no heroic Martin Arrowsmith without Dr. Paul de Kruif. He enriched the novel with the facts of science and the character of scientists, but wisely left the writing to Lewis. (Schorer 18-19). Sinclair was sensitive enough to have admitted that Arrowsmith could have not been a success without de Kruif's serious dedication, scientific knowledge and technique that he provided to the novel itself.

De Kruif, Paul. The Sweeping Wind. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962.
Rosenberg, Charles E. Sinclair Lewis. New York, New Haven, Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Schorer, Mark. Sinclair Lewis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1963.
Spayd, Barbara G. Arrowsmith. New York, Chicago: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1925, 1933.
www.aliciapatterson.org/APF2003/Henig/Henig.html