Elmer Gantry
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- For information on the UK singer Elmer Gantry, aka Dave Terry, see Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera
| Author | Sinclair Lewis |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Harcourt |
| Publication date | March 1927 |
| Pages | 465 (2007 edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-451-53075-2 (2007 edition) |
Elmer Gantry is a novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 and published by Harcourt in March 1927. It tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who, upon realizing the power, prestige, and easy money that being an evangelical preacher can bring, pursues his "religious" ambitions with relish, contributing to the downfall, even death, of key people around him as the years pass. Although he continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, Gantry is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and to reach ever greater heights of social status. The novel ends as the Rev. Gantry prays for the USA to be a "moral nation" and simultaneously admires the legs of a new choir singer.
Contents |
[edit] The novel
In the novel, Gantry continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, yet he is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and reaching ever greater heights of social standing. Mark Schorer, then of the University of California, Berkeley, notes that "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."
Lewis did research for the novel by observing the work of preacher Burris Jenkins, pastor in the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Jenkins introduced Lewis to many other clergymen, among them the Reverend L.M. Birkhead, a Unitarian and an agnostic. Schorer says that both of these associations, as well as others, influenced characters in the novel. There's no record of the character of Elmer Gantry or any other characters as being fictionalizations of the careers of Billy Sunday or Aimee Semple McPherson. Schorer also says that, while researching the book, that Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City, and that "he took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community." The result is a novel that represents the religious activity of America in evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s toward it. Elmer Gantry also appears in another, lesser known Lewis novel, Gideon Planish.
The novel is dedicated by Lewis "to H. L. Mencken, with profound admiration."
On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from pulpits across the USA. One cleric suggested that Lewis should be imprisoned for five years, and there were also threats of physical violence against the author. The famous evangelist Billy Sunday called Lewis "Satan’s cohort." Shortly after the publication of Elmer Gantry, H. G. Wells published a widely-syndicated newspaper article called "the New American People," in which he based his observations of American culture entirely on the novels of Sinclair Lewis, including Elmer Gantry.[citation needed]
[edit] Adaptations
- A Broadway play by Patrick Kearney (not the serial killer of the same name Patrick Kearney) opened on August 7, 1928 at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. The cast included Edward J. Pawley (later of Hollywood and Big Town fame) as Elmer Gantry and Vera Allen as Sister Sharon Falconer.
- The 1960 film of the same name starred Burt Lancaster as Gantry and Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer.
- A 1970 Broadway musical adaptation titled Gantry opened and closed on the same night.
- In November 2007, an opera by Robert Aldridge premiered in the James K. Polk Theater, Nashville.
[edit] See also
[edit] Trivia
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- M*A*S*H (TV series) episode 1 (The Pilot Episode) During a fundraising dance, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) likens Major Burns (Larry Linville) to Elmer Gantry.
- In one scene of the original Broadway production of Elmer Gantry at The Playhouse Theater in 1928, the Reverend Gantry (played by Broadway star Edward J. Pawley) raced out into the theater audience in a make-believe attempt to obtain converts.
- After its run on Broadway, Elmer Gantry went on a national tour. It was not well received by the religious factions in the Midwest, according to the play's star, Edward J. Pawley.
[edit] References
- Nelson Manfred Blake. "How to Learn History from Sinclair Lewis and Other Uncommon Sources." American Character and Culture in a Changing World: Some Twentieth-Century Perspectives. Ed. John A. Hague. Westport: Greenwood, 1979. 111-23.
- Wheeler Dixon. "Cinematic Adaptations of the Works of Sinclair Lewis." Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference. Ed. Michael Connaughton. St. Cloud: St. Cloud State University, 1985. 191-200.
- Robert J. Higgs. "Religion and Sports: Three Muscular Christians in American Literature." American Sport Culture: The Humanistic Dimensions. Ed. Wiley Lee Umphlett. Lewisburg: Buknell UP, 1985. 226-34.
- James M. Hutchisson. The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920-1930. University Park: Pennsylvania State U P, 1996.
- George Killough. "Elmer Gantry, Chaucer's Pardoner, and the Limits of Serious Words." Sinclair Lewis: New Essays in Criticism. Ed. James M. Hutchisson. Troy, New York: Whitston, 1997. 162-74.
- Edward A. Martin. "The Mimic as Artist: Sinclair Lewis." H.L. Mencken and the Debunkers. Athens: U of Georgia P., 1984. 115-38.
- Gary H. Mayer. "Love is More Than the Evening Star: A Semantic Analysis of Elmer Gantry and The Man Who Knew Coolidge." American Bypaths: Essays in Honor of E. Hudson Long. Ed. Robert G. Collmer and Jack W. Herring. Waco: Baylor UP, 1980. 145-66.
- James Benedict Moore. "The Sources of Elmer Gantry." New Republic 143 (8 Aug. 1960): 17-18.
- Edward J. Piacentino. "Babbittry Southern Style: T.S. Stribling's Unfinished Cathedral." Markham Review 10 (1981): 36-39.
- Elizabeth S. Prioleau. "The Minister and the Seductress in American Fiction: The Adamic Myth Reduz." Journal of American Culture 16.4 (1993): 1-6.
- Mark Schorer. Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, 1961.
- Mark Schorer. "Afterword." Elmer Gantry, 1970.
- Robert Gibson Corder, Ph.D., "Edward J. Pawley: Broadway's Elmer Gantry, Radio's Steve Wilson, and Hollywood's Perennial Bad Guy", Outskirts Press, 2006
- Edward Shillito. "Elmer Gantry and the Church in America." Nineteenth Century and After 101 (1927): 739-48.
Books by Sinclair Lewis |
|---|
| Hike and the Aeroplane - Our Mr. Wrenn - The Job - The Innocents - Free Air - Main Street - Babbitt - Arrowsmith - Mantrap - Elmer Gantry - The Man Who Knew Coolidge - Dodsworth - Ann Vickers - Work of Art - It Can't Happen Here - Selected Stories - The Prodigal Parents - Bethel Merriday - Gideon Planish - Cass Timberlane - Kingsblood Royal - The God Seeker - World So Wide |
fr:Elmer Gantry le charlatan ko:엘머 갠트리 it:Il figlio di Giuda
Categories: Articles lacking in-text citations | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from December 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | 1927 novels | Fictional Protestants | Characters in written fiction
