Sinclair Lewis & Antique Books: Collecting the Works of a Forgotten Legend

Sinclair Lewis was one of the great American authors, yet outside of the antique book collector's community he is a relative unknown, and has just begun to make his way back into academe despite at one time being the sole giant of American literature. Sinclair Lewis closes the gap between Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, and all of his printed books are now considered antiques and collectible.

I am a huge Sinclair Lewis fan, both because of his clear, easy to follow prose as a writer, and also because I am a book hound and love collecting antique books. To me, there is nothing better than a well written old book. While we even take things such as automobiles and airplanes for granted, novels such as Free Air and Hike and the Aeroplane show us a time when these things were anything but commonplace. Keep in mind that "Hike" was only printed nine years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, and Free Air predates the Model T.

On this list, Tennis as I Play it will be listed as being by Maurice E McLoughlin, though it was actually ghost written by Sinclair Lewis, and is now considered a valuable collectible antique book because of this fact. The rest of these novels were indeed credited to the famous American author and early 20th century icon. All of the first editions of these novels are now valuable, though the early ones are much more valuable as the later ones. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis's 1920 novel, was the one that made him famous, and so the ones before this point tend to be much more valuable since they're rarer, while the more modern ones were best sellers, and thus generally not worth as much.

The Early Works
1912: Hike and the Aeroplane
1914: Our Mr. Wren
1915: The Trail of the Hawk & Tennis As I Play It*
1917: The Job & The Innocents
1919: Free Air

Coming into Fame
1920: Main Street (This was truly Sinclair Lewis's break out novel)
1922: Babbitt
1925: Arrowsmith & Man Trap
1927: Elmer Gantry
1928: The Man Who Knew Coolidge
1929: Dodsworth

1930s
1933: Ann Vickers
1934: Work of Art
1935: Jay Hawker & It Can't Happen Here
1938: The Prodigal Parents

1940s
1940: Bethel Merriday
1943: Gideon Planish
1945: Cass Timberlane
1947: Kingsblood Royal
1949: The Godseeker

Last Work, printed the year he died
1951: World So Wide

All of the books listed in the first section are valuable antiques. In good condition, many of them can go for hundreds of dollars. I currently own one copy of The Trail of the Hawk, and used to own a copy of The Innocents, though I found a buyer for that one.

All of these books are collectible, though the more modern ones may be in the $30-$60 range while a copy of Hike, with a dust jacket (less than fifty are known to exist) goes for over $12,000. This great author deserves to be remembered, and for those interested in getting into book hunting, buy a few books on the subject, and this is one of the rare ones where about once or twice a year, one of the really good early works by Sinclair Lewis tends to show up on eBay.

Good luck, and welcome to a great new hobby, where history and literature meet in the best of both worlds!

List of Sources:

Richard Russell, Antique Trader Book Collector's Guide 2003

"Additional Sinclair Lewis Resources" http://www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/nobel%20prize%20winners/lewisres.htm