1885
Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and
Emma Kermott Lewis.
1891
Mother dies.
1892
Father marries Isabel Warner.
1902
Attends Oberlin Academy in Ohio.
1903–1906
Attends Yale University, serves as editor of Yale Literary
Magazine, works on cattle boats during two summers.
1906
Works temporary jobs and spends a month doing odd jobs at
Upton Sinclair's Helicon Hall.
1907–1908
Returns to Yale and graduates.
1908–1915
Travels the U.S., works in New York publishing houses, and
writes poetry and short stories.
1912
Hike and Aeroplane is published under the name Tom
Graham.
1914
Marries Grace Hegger, and Our Mr. Wrenn is published.
1916
The Trail of the Hawk is published.
1917
The Job and The Innocents are published. Son,
Wells, is born.
1919
Free Air is published.
1922
Babbitt is published.
1925
Arrowsmith is published.
1926
Mantrap is published. Awarded Pulitzer Prize for
Arrowsmith, but refuses it. Father dies.
1927
Elmer Gantry is published.
1928
The Man Who Knew Coolidge is published. Divorces
Grace Hegger, weds Dorothy Thompson.
1929
Dodsworth is published.
1930
Son, Michael, is born. Becomes first American awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature.
1933
Ann Vickers is published.
1934
Work of Art is published. Assists Sidney Howard in
adapting Dodsworth to the stage.
1935
It Can't Happen Here and Select Short Stories
is published.
1936-1942
Writes several plays, including Angela is Twenty-Two, acting
in a few of them.
1938
The Prodigal Parents is published.
1940
Bethel Merriday is published. Teaches briefly at
University of Wisconsin.
1942
Divorces Dorothy Thompson.
1943
Gideon Planish is published.
1944
Lt. Wells Lewis is killed by a sniper in Piedmont Valley,
France, during WWII.
1945
Cass Timberlane is published.
1947
Kingsblood Royal is published.
1949
The God-Seeker is published.
1951
Dies in Rome of heart disease, buried in Greenwood Cemetery,
Sauk Centre, Minnesota. World So Wide is published
posthumously.
