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Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry is a 1927 satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis that presents aspects of the religious activity of the United States in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it.[not verified in body] Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, the protagonist, is attracted by drinking, chasing women, and making easy money (although eventually renouncing tobacco and alcohol). In the novel's fictional world, after various forays into smaller fringe churches, Gantry becomes a major moral and political force in the Methodist Church despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.[non-primary source needed]
Elmer Gantry was published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken.[not verified in body]
Biographer Mark Schorer states that while researching the book, Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City,[citation needed] and that, "He took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community."[This quote needs a citation] According to others,[who?] Lewis researched the novel by observing the work of various preachers in Kansas City in his so-called "Sunday School" meetings on Wednesdays.[citation needed] There, he first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church.[citation needed] Stidger introduced Lewis to many other clergymen,[citation needed] thus Lewis engaged with Unitarian pastor L. M. Birkhead (an agnostic[citation needed]). Lewis preferred the liberal Birkhead to the conservative Stidger, and on his second visit to Kansas City, Lewis chose Birkhead as his guide.[citation needed] Other Kansas City ministers Lewis interviewed included Burris Jenkins, Earl Blackman, I. M. Hargett, Bert Fiske, and Robert Nelson Horatio Spencer, who was rector of Grace and Holy Trinity Church (now the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri).[citation needed]
The character of Sharon Falconer was reportedly based on events in the career of the radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson,[according to whom?] who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927.[citation needed] Lewis reportedly finished the book while mending a broken leg on Jackfish Island in Rainy Lake, Minnesota.[citation needed]
Experts have noted[who?] that George Babbitt, the namesake of one of Lewis' better-known novels, appears in Elmer Gantry (briefly, during an encounter at the Zenith Athletic Club),[citation needed] and that the Elmer Gantry character appears as a minor character in two later, lesser-known Lewis novels, The Man Who Knew Coolidge and Gideon Planish.[citation needed]
The novel tells the story of the young, womanizing college athlete, Elmer Gantry, who abandons an early ambition to become a lawyer. After college,[clarification needed] he attends a Baptist seminary,[clarification needed] and is ordained as a minister. He successfully hides sexual involvements that are prohibited,[clarification needed] but is thrown out of the seminary before completing his bachelor of divinity because he is too drunk to appear at a church where he is supposed to preach.
After several years as a traveling salesman of farm equipment, Gantry becomes a confidante of Sharon Falconer, a popular evangelist and motivational speaker[clarification needed] who has her own traveling "road church". Gantry becomes her lover, but she and scores of individuals attending one of her meetings are killed in a catastrophic fire in her tent tabernacle, and so Gantry loses both relationship and position. After the tragedy, he briefly acts as a "New Thought" evangelist,[clarification needed] and eventually becomes a Methodist minister.
Gantry marries a local parishioner. Although he is unhappy with her sexual frigidity, he remains with her for sake of appearances. Years later, Methodist leaders award him a larger congregation in the city of Zenith. With his career and power at their peak, Gantry manipulates local, state and national political figures, resulting in police raids against bootleggers and bar patrons.
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry is a 1927 satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis that presents aspects of the religious activity of the United States in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it.[not verified in body] Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, the protagonist, is attracted by drinking, chasing women, and making easy money (although eventually renouncing tobacco and alcohol). In the novel's fictional world, after various forays into smaller fringe churches, Gantry becomes a major moral and political force in the Methodist Church despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.[non-primary source needed]
Elmer Gantry was published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken.[not verified in body]
Biographer Mark Schorer states that while researching the book, Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City,[citation needed] and that, "He took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community."[This quote needs a citation] According to others,[who?] Lewis researched the novel by observing the work of various preachers in Kansas City in his so-called "Sunday School" meetings on Wednesdays.[citation needed] There, he first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church.[citation needed] Stidger introduced Lewis to many other clergymen,[citation needed] thus Lewis engaged with Unitarian pastor L. M. Birkhead (an agnostic[citation needed]). Lewis preferred the liberal Birkhead to the conservative Stidger, and on his second visit to Kansas City, Lewis chose Birkhead as his guide.[citation needed] Other Kansas City ministers Lewis interviewed included Burris Jenkins, Earl Blackman, I. M. Hargett, Bert Fiske, and Robert Nelson Horatio Spencer, who was rector of Grace and Holy Trinity Church (now the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri).[citation needed]
The character of Sharon Falconer was reportedly based on events in the career of the radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson,[according to whom?] who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927.[citation needed] Lewis reportedly finished the book while mending a broken leg on Jackfish Island in Rainy Lake, Minnesota.[citation needed]
Experts have noted[who?] that George Babbitt, the namesake of one of Lewis' better-known novels, appears in Elmer Gantry (briefly, during an encounter at the Zenith Athletic Club),[citation needed] and that the Elmer Gantry character appears as a minor character in two later, lesser-known Lewis novels, The Man Who Knew Coolidge and Gideon Planish.[citation needed]
The novel tells the story of the young, womanizing college athlete, Elmer Gantry, who abandons an early ambition to become a lawyer. After college,[clarification needed] he attends a Baptist seminary,[clarification needed] and is ordained as a minister. He successfully hides sexual involvements that are prohibited,[clarification needed] but is thrown out of the seminary before completing his bachelor of divinity because he is too drunk to appear at a church where he is supposed to preach.
After several years as a traveling salesman of farm equipment, Gantry becomes a confidante of Sharon Falconer, a popular evangelist and motivational speaker[clarification needed] who has her own traveling "road church". Gantry becomes her lover, but she and scores of individuals attending one of her meetings are killed in a catastrophic fire in her tent tabernacle, and so Gantry loses both relationship and position. After the tragedy, he briefly acts as a "New Thought" evangelist,[clarification needed] and eventually becomes a Methodist minister.
Gantry marries a local parishioner. Although he is unhappy with her sexual frigidity, he remains with her for sake of appearances. Years later, Methodist leaders award him a larger congregation in the city of Zenith. With his career and power at their peak, Gantry manipulates local, state and national political figures, resulting in police raids against bootleggers and bar patrons.
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