Editing Elmer Gantry (section)

==Reception==
Sinclair's ''Elmer Gantry'' was a commercial success, and was the best-selling work of fiction in America for 1927 (according to [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s|''Publishers Weekly'']]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry |title=80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895 - 1975 |date=1977 |publisher=R.R. Bowker Company |location=New York |isbn=0835209083 |page=103}}</ref> However, on its publication, it created a public furor—it was [[banned in Boston]] and in other cities,<ref>{{cite news | author = NYT Staff | date = April 13, 1927 | title = Boston Bans Sale of 'Elmer Gantry' | work = [[The New York Times]] | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/04/13/97229735.html?pageNumber=16 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | quote = [Subtitle] Will Prosecute Any Who Sell Lewis Novel Under Law Against 'Indecent and Obscene' Books. Ten More Under Scrutiny. Publishers Will Hand to District Attorney Today 57 Works Held as Frank as Lewis's.}}</ref><ref name = AU>{{cite web | author = Boston, Rob | date = September 22, 2014 | title = The Censorship Crusade: A Story For Banned Books Week | work = [[AU.org]] | url = https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-censorship-crusade-a-story-for-banned-books-week | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150713034218/https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-censorship-crusade-a-story-for-banned-books-week | archive-date = 2015-07-13 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Washington, DC | publisher = Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU)}}</ref>{{better source needed|date = October 2024}}<ref>{{cite web | author = Thomas, Ruth | date = 2015-04-24 | title = Research Guides; Boston and Its Neighborhoods; "Banned in Boston": Selected Sources | url = http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/boston/banned/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150424025925/http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/boston/banned/ | archive-date = 2015-04-24 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Boston, MA | publisher = Boston University Libraries and Archives}}</ref> and denounced from pulpits across the United States.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--The AU.com source does not say this (no "denounc$" or "pulpit$"), and only offers the examples fully stated (Billy Sunday, the cleric suggesting a prison sentence).--> Contemporary Sinclair Lewis biographer [[Mark Schorer]] notes that one cleric suggested Lewis be imprisoned for five years; others note that evangelist [[Billy Sunday]] threatened to beat him up and called him "Satan's cohort", and Lewis reportedly received an invitation to his own lynching.<ref name = AU/>{{better source needed|date = October 2024}}

===Criticism===
{{expand section | with = literary critical response, contemporary and modern, relating to this classic work | small = no | date = October 2024}}
Lewis biographer [[Mark Schorer|Schorer]] notes, "The forces of social good and enlightenment as presented in ''Elmer Gantry'' are not strong enough to offer any real resistance to the forces of social evil and banality."{{quote without source|date = October 2024}} Schorer concludes, in view of Lewis' research, that the novel satirically represents the religious activity of America in evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s toward it.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}