Lewis published frequently throughout and
after the Harlem Renaissance. He also supported
the efforts to sustain the literary excellence of the
period. With EUGENEO’NEILLand others, Lewis
served as a judge in the highly regarded literary
contests sponsored by THECRISIS,the official jour-
nal of the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THEAD-
VANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE(NAACP). He
enjoyed a close and spirited friendship with WAL-
TERWHITE, a fellow scholar and the intrepid un-
dercover NAACP reporter who provided firsthand
accounts of lynchings and mob violence. CARL
VANVECHTENwas one of the friends with whom
White debated key aspects of his novels. The
friendship between the two men began when Lewis
read FIRE IN THEFLINT.Lewis provided a strong
endorsement of the book, and the two began to
correspond about the heated southern reception
and protest of the novel about southern LYNCHING.
It was White who facilitated the introduction be-
tween Lewis and CLAUDEMCKAY, the poet and
novelist. The two met in Paris; Lewis wanted to
meet the poet, journalist, and aspiring novelist.
During their lengthy conversations over the course
of two days, Lewis offered helpful and forthright
evaluations of McKay’s current writing project,
Color Scheme.Impressed by McKay’s writing and
efforts, Lewis offered crucial support when he lob-
bied the Garland Fund to extend McKay’s grant.
When Carl Van Vechten arrived in New York
City in the early 1900s, the future well-connected
critic and socialite lived in the same West 39th
Street building as Lewis. The two men later be-
came friends. From time to time, Lewis also re-
viewed the publications of his former neighbor. In
response to Van Vechten’s Blind Bow Boy,Lewis
declared that the book was “impertinent, subver-
sive, resolutely and completely wicked” and that
Van Vechten had successfully “slap[ped] the tradi-
tion that highbrow American novels must be ei-
ther lugubriously and literally ‘realistic... or else
acrobatically ‘original’ like... all the writers who
are deriving from the solemn theology of Gertrude
Stein” (Kellner, 147).
Lewis’s novels were read widely by Harlem Re-
naissance authors including ZORA NEALE
HURSTON. In 1927 she solicited help from friends
DOROTHYWESTand HELENE JOHNSON, asking
them to send along a copy of Lewis’s Elmer Gantry
because her rural southern community was not one
in which such books were available.Bibliography
Bucco, Martin. Critical Essays on Sinclair Lewis.Boston:
G. K. Hall, 1986.
Hutchisson, James. The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920–1930.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1996.
Kellner, Bruce. Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent
Decades.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1968.
Lingeman, Richard. Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main
Street.New York: Random House, 2002.
Van Doren, Carol. Sinclair Lewis: A Biographical Sketch.
Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, Doran, 1933.Lewis, Theophilus(1891–1974)
A self-educated theater writer who became one of
the most visible and insightful drama critics during
the Harlem Renaissance. He published widely dur-
ing the era, and his reviews of books, drama, and
short fiction appeared in such popular publications
as OPPORTUNITY,INTER-STATETATTLER,and the
AMSTERDAMNEWS.
Born in Baltimore to Thomas and Anne
Lewis, Theophilus Lewis had a spotty education
before he joined the army and fought during World
War I. He was a member of the American Expedi-
tionary Forces. When he returned to the United
States, he began working in NEWYORKCITYas a
postal employee. He married in 1933 and had
three children, Selma, Alfred, and Lowell. He be-
came a Catholic in 1939 and began submitting
work to numerous Catholic publications such as
Catholic World, Commonweal,and America.
Lewis regarded the theater as an essential ve-
hicle through which society could effect and con-
sider social change and cultural development. His
sentiments were akin to those of W. E. B. DUBOIS,
T. MONTGOMERYGREGORY,LANGSTONHUGHES,
and ZORANEALEHURSTON, all of whom worked
assiduously to establish a thriving African-American
theater tradition for, by, and about the race. Lewis
bemoaned the constraints placed on talented ac-
tors of color for whom there were not enough chal-
lenging and sophisticated roles. He praised the
efforts of small community theaters, recognizingLewis, Theophilus 311