Guide to the Joan McQuary Collection of Sinclair Lewis Letters
University Archives and Special Collections
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Quantity: .42 linear feet
Restrictions: No usage restrictions
PDF version of the McQuary finding aid (18 kb)
- Biography: Joan McQuary
- Biography: Harry Sinclair Lewis
- Scope and Content Note
- Acquisition and Processing
- Boxlist
Joan McQuary
(?– ?)
Joan McQuary graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1943. Soon after graduation, Joan moved to New York City. While living in New York City, she landed a position at the Columbia University Press, eventually becoming its senior editor.
(1885-1951)
Harry Sinclair Lewis was a prolific American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Main Street, published in 1920, is Lewis’ best known work.
Born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota in 1885, to Edwin and Emma Lewis, Lewis had two older brothers, Fred and Claude.
At Yale University where Lewis received a degree from in 1908, Lewis published in the Yale Literary Magazine, the Courant, and the Record. This began a long career of writing novels and plays.
Lewis’ bibliography includes:
Hike and the Aeroplane (1912) |
Mantrap (1926) |
The Prodigal Parents (1938) |
Our Mr Wrenn (1914) |
Elmer Gantry (1927) |
Bethel Merriday (1940) |
The Trail of the Hawk (1915) |
The Man Who Knew Coolidge (1928) |
Gideon Planish (1943) |
The Job (1917) |
Dodsworth (1929) |
Cass Timberlane (1945) |
The Innocents (1917) |
Launcelot (1932) |
Kingsblood Royal (1947) |
Free Air (1919) |
Ann Vickers (1933) |
The God-Seeker (1949) |
Main Street (1920) |
Work of Art (1934) |
World So Wide (1951) |
Babbitt (1922) |
The Jayhawker (1935) |
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Arrowsmith (1925) |
It Can’t Happen Here (1935) |
Lewis died in Italy in 1951.
There are many secondary sources for information about Lewis’ life, including Richard Lingeman 2002 book, Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street.
The 19 letters were written by Sinclair Lewis to Joan McQuary between 1942 and 1945. In the fall of 1942, McQuary met Lewis as a student in his creative writing class at the University of Minnesota. When the class finished in December, Lewis moved to New York City. During his time in Minneapolis, April to December 1942, Lewis nearly completed his novel Gideon Planish.
In these letters, Lewis discussed a wide variety of topics, giving a sense of his life while living in New York City. Lewis elaborated on his search for and described his new apartment at 300 Central Park West. Despite moving to New York City, Lewis longed for his University of Minnesota pupils and Minnesota, urging Joan to visit him in New York City, possibly working for him as a secretary. Lewis often mentioned spending the coming summer in Minnesota.
While in New York City, Lewis finished his novel, Gideon Planish. It was published that spring. Lewis was aware of the reviews he received for his book, noting to McQuary that the “furious attack” by literary critic Mumford Jones “is to be answered by yet more furious letters full of literary sniffing and thumbings of the philological nose…” He also mentioned on several occasions that he was sick of writing. After completing short stories for Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan in the spring of 1943, Lewis said the only writing he wanted to do was checks and luggage labels.
The letters were donated by Mignon Sauber, friend of Joan McQuary, to the St. Cloud State University Archives in May 2008.
Processing
The manuscripts were processed by Tom Steman in May 2008.
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| 1 | 1 | Letters, 1942-May 1943 |
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| 1 | 2 | Letters, July 1943-July 1945 |
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