Editing Sinclair Lewis (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Sinclair Lewis with Dorothy Thompson and son 1935.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Lewis with Thompson and son in 1935]]
In 1914 Lewis married Grace Livingston Hegger (1887–1981), an editor at ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' magazine. They had one son, Wells Lewis (1917–1944), named after British author [[H. G. Wells]]. Serving as a U.S. Army lieutenant during [[World War II]], Wells Lewis was killed in action on October 29, 1944 amid Allied efforts to rescue the [[Lost Battalion (Europe, World War II)|"Lost Battalion"]] in France.<ref>Steidl, Franz (2008) ''Lost Battalions: Going for Broke in the Vosges, Autumn 1944''. New York: Random House. p. 87. {{ISBN|0307537900}}</ref><ref>Scharnhorst, Gary and Hofer, Matthew eds. (2012) ''Sinclair Lewis Remembered''. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. p. 278. {{ISBN|978-0-8173-8627-6}}</ref> [[Dean Acheson]], the future [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]], was a neighbor and family friend in Washington, and observed that Sinclair's literary "success was not good for that marriage, or for either of the parties to it, or for Lewis's work" and the family moved out of town.<ref>Acheson, Dean (1962). ''Morning and Noon''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 44.</ref>

Lewis divorced Grace on April 16, 1928.<ref name="Lingeman">{{cite book|last= Lingeman|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQozEkrNYjIC|title=Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street|date=2005|publisher=Borealis Books|isbn=978-0-87351-541-2 |access-date=2024-12-20}}</ref> On May 14, he married the noted international correspondant and newspaper columnist [[Dorothy Thompson]]. In 1928, he and Dorothy purchased a second home in rural Vermont.<ref>Lewis, Sinclair (September 23, 1929), [https://web.archive.org/web/20070609221815/https://www.ruralvermont.com/vermontweathervane/issues/fall/97010/thoughtvermont.html "Thoughts on Vermont"], ''Vermont Weathervane''; talk given to the Rutland, Vt. Rotary.</ref> They had a son, Michael Lewis (1930–1975), who became a stage actor. Their marriage had virtually ended by 1937, and they divorced in 1942.<ref name="lithub">{{cite web |last1=Nancy |first1=Cott |title=A Good Journalist Understands That Fascism Can Happen Anywhere, Anytime: On the 1930s Antifascist Writing of Dorothy Thompson |url=https://lithub.com/a-good-journalist-understands-that-fascism-can-happen-anywhere-anytime/ |publisher=Literary Hub |access-date=2 May 2020 |date=30 April 2020}}</ref>

Lewis died in Rome from advanced alcoholism, on January 10, 1951, aged 65. His body was cremated and his remains were buried at Greenwood Cemetery in [[Sauk Centre, Minnesota]]. His final novel ''World So Wide'' (1951) was published posthumously.

[[William Shirer]], a friend and admirer of Lewis, argued that Lewis did not die from alcoholism. He reported that Lewis had a heart attack and that his doctors advised him to stop drinking if he wanted to live. Lewis did not stop, and perhaps could not; he died when his heart stopped.<ref name="autogenerated1904">William L. Shirer, ''20th Century Journey: A Memoir of a Life and the Times'' vol. 1: ''The Start: 1904–1930'' (NY: Bantam Books, 1980) 458–9</ref>

In summarizing Lewis's career, Shirer said:<ref name="autogenerated1904"/>
{{blockquote|It has become rather commonplace for so-called literary critics to write off Sinclair Lewis as a novelist. Compared to&nbsp;... [[F. Scott Fitzgerald|Fitzgerald]], [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]], [[John Dos Passos|Dos Passos]], and [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]]&nbsp;... Lewis lacked style. Yet his impact on modern American life&nbsp;... was greater than all of the other four writers together.}}