Minnesota Vacation and Travel Ideas for Literary Tours
Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home
810 Sinclair Lewis Avenue
Sauk Centre, MN 56378
Website: http://www.saukherald.com/ftp/lewis/home.html
Email: - none listed
Phone: (320) 352-5201
American novelist and playwright Sinclair Lewis (1885 ?¢?? 1951) was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In accepting the 1930 award, Lewis commented, "in America most of us ?¢?? not readers alone, but even writers ?¢?? are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues," Indeed, several of Lewis?¢??s books, including Elmer Gantry, Babbitt, Kingsblood Royal, and Cass Timberlane, were banned because of his controversial views.
Sinclair Lewis grew up in this home in Sauk Center, three blocks from Main Street, and the house still contains much family memorabilia. His father was a doctor, and the house often served as the local emergency room. Lewis?¢??s boyhood observations provided a great deal of material for his book Arrowsmith, which features an idealistic doctor. The book won a 1926 Pulitzer Prize, which Lewis rejected.
Sauk City itself inspired Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, the backdrop for Lewis?¢??s 1920 classic Main Street. The Palmer House Hotel, where Lewis worked as a substitute night clerk, still stands. The town?¢??s Bryant Library contains a complete collection of all Lewis's works, numerous photographs, and tapes of lectures and interviews, along with Lewis's death certificate, and the urn that carried his ashes from Rome, where he died, to Sauk Centre.
Sauk Center is also home to the Sinclair Lewis Interpretive Center. For more information, see , visit: http://www.saukherald.com/ftp/lewis/center.html, or call: (320) 352-5201.
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Sinclair Lewis Interpretive Center
194 & Highway 71
Sauk Centre, MN 56378
Website: http://www.saukherald.com/ftp/lewis/center.html
Email: chamber@saukcentre.com
Phone: (320) 352-5201
The Sinclair Lewis Interpretive Center, located in the author?¢??s hometown of Sauk City, Minnesota, is home to a great deal of material that reveals how Lewis crafted his novels. Lewis (1885 ?¢?? 1951) was very methodical in the creation of his characters. He often chose real names from tombstones and telephone books, and then created characters to accompany the names. In a similar way, he invented place names and created fictional cities, often based upon his own experience. For example, the town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, the backdrop for Lewis?¢??s 1920 classic Main Street, is based heavily on Sauk City itself. The interpretive center?¢??s display, ?¢??The Birth of a Novel?¢?? explains Lewis?¢??s methods.
Much Sinclair Lewis memorabilia resides at this museum.
The museum is also home to Lewis?¢??s writing desk, old photographs and historical background of Sauk Centre, Lewis?¢??s diplomas, and other personal items belonging to Lewis.
Sauk Center is also home to the Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home. For more information, see , visit: http://www.saukherald.com/ftp/lewis/home.html, or call: (320) 352-5201.
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Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum
330 Eighth Street
Walnut Grove, MN 56180
Website: http://www.walnutgrove.org/
Email: lauramuseum@walnutgrove.org
Phone: (800) 528-7280
Several of Laura Ingalls Wilder?¢??s books, as well as the popular television series Little House on the Prairie, are set in the town of Walnut Grove, which has become a popular pilgrimage site for Little House fans. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum site is comprised of a chapel, schoolhouse, onion-domed house, covered wagon display, early settler?¢??s house, and old-fashioned depot. An extensive doll collection is on view, along with memorabilia from the stars of the television series who have visited the museum. The Wilder Pageant is held in July on the banks on Plum Creek. In the amphitheater, one can see a live performance of the Ingalls?¢?? family life in Walnut Grove, narrated by the character of Laura.
Other notable sites dedicated to Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books include:
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in De Smet, South Dakota. For more information, see , visit: http://www.liwms.com/, or call: (800) 880-3383.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Cabin and Museum in Pepin, Wisconsin. For more information, see: , visit: http://www.pepinwisconsin.com/cgi-bin/viewnlcontent.cgi?nlarticle_id=2, or call: (800) 442-3011.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa.
For more information, see , visit: http://www.lauraingallswilder.us, or call: (563) 735-5916.
Little House on the Prairie, 13 miles southwest of Independence, Kansas. For more information, see , visit: http://www.littlehouseontheprarie.com or http://www.indkschamber.org/things_to_do_in_independence.htm, or call: (620) 289-4238.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. For more information, see , visit: http://lauraingallswilderhome.com, or call: (417) 924-3626.
The Wilder Farmhouse in Malone, New York. For more information, see , visit: http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/malone.html, or call: (518) 483-1207.
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