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{{Short description|1927 satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Elmer Gantry
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = ElmerGantry.jpg
| caption = First edition cover
| author = [[Sinclair Lewis]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| subject =
| genre =
| publisher = [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt Trade Publishers]]
| pub_date = March 1927
| media_type =
| pages = 432
| oclc = 185039547
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''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|date = October 2024}} 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.<ref>{{cite web | author = Lewis, Sinclair | author-link = Sinclair Lewis | date =  1927 | title = Elmer Gantry | edition = | location =  | publisher =  | isbn  =  | url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300851h.html | access-date=2015-11-13 }}{{better source needed|date = October 2024}} As a primary source, and lacking edition and publisher information, this source does not support the lead content (without editorial original research).</ref>{{primary source inline|date = October 2024}}

''Elmer Gantry'' was published in the United States by [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt Trade Publishers]] in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist [[H. L. Mencken]].{{not verified in body|date = October 2024}}

==Background==
{{multiple issues|section = yes|
{{more citations needed section|date = October 2024}} 
{{Dispute about|various statements on Lewis' research NOT appearing in the cited Trollinger source|date=October 2024}}
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Biographer [[Mark Schorer]] states that while researching the book, Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City,{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES FOLLOWING.--> and that, "He took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community."{{quote without source|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES FOLLOWING.--> According to others,{{who|date = October 2024}} 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|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES FOLLOWING.--> There, he first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger,<ref name=Trollinger>{{cite book | author = Trollinger, William Vance | date = 1990 | title = God's Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern Fundamentalism | page = 3 | series = History of American Thought and Culture | isbn=9780299127145 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DE-HQpppDd8C&q=%22Sinclair+Lewis+%22Elmer+Gantry%22+%22Kansas+City%22&pg=PA3 |access-date=2015-11-13 | location = Madison, WI | publisher = University of Wisconsin Press | quote = Sinclair Lewis began the process of writing his classic satire of popular religion, ''Elmer Gntry'', by doing some research into the current state of Christianity in America. As part of his preparation, Lewis went to Kansas City in January 1926 and immersed himself in the religious life of the community. While the prominent New York fundamentalist John Roach Straton seems to have been the initial model for Lewis' protagonist, in Kansas City the author fleshed out the character of the infamous Gantry with material from the lives of Methodist minister William "Big Bill" Stidger and Unitarian pastor L. M. Birkhead. In the process, Lewis became quite friendly with Birkhead and his wife. After accumulating piles of notes, and armed with a twenty-thousand-word outline, Lewis withdrew with the Birkheads to a summer resort in northern Minnesota, where he began to write the novel.[superscript 1] / While in Minnesota Lewis apparently concluded that he needed more data for his portrait of a fundamentalist preacher. He thus made efforts to interview, William Bell Riley, strident fundamentalist, and pastor of the first Baptist Church of Minneapolis. As Riley recounted later, 'when L. M. Birkhead, Universalist Pastor of Kansas City, and Sinclair Lewis brought their half heads together in order to produce the book entitled, ''Elmer Gantry'', they . . . invited me to spend a week with them on Long Lake . . . in the hopes of getting something on me that they might work into that rotten volume.' Fortunately, Riley observed, 'God, who knows all things, knew they were coming,' and so filled Riley's week with commitments that... [he] was forced to decline the invitation.}}</ref> pastor of the [[Linwood Boulevard (Kansas City, Missouri)|Linwood Boulevard]] [[Methodist Episcopal Church]].{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES EARLIER OR FOLLOWING.--> Stidger introduced Lewis to many other clergymen,{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES EARLIER OR FOLLOWING.--> thus Lewis engaged with [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] pastor [[Leon Milton Birkhead|L. M. Birkhead]]<ref name=Trollinger/> (an [[Agnosticism|agnostic]]{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES EARLIER OR FOLLOWING.-->). 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|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES EARLIER OR FOLLOWING.--> 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 Cathedral (Kansas City, Missouri)|Grace and Holy Trinity Church]] (now the cathedral of the [[Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri]]).{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--CONTENT NOT IN SOURCES EARLIER.-->

The character of Sharon Falconer was reportedly based on events in the career of the radio evangelist [[Aimee Semple McPherson]],{{according to whom|date = October 2024}} who founded the [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] Christian denomination known as the [[International Church of the Foursquare Gospel]] in 1927.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}} Lewis reportedly finished the book while mending a broken leg on [[Jackfish Island]] in [[Rainy Lake, Minnesota]].{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}

Experts have noted{{who|date = October 2024}} that [[Babbitt (novel)|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|date = October 2024}} 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|date = October 2024}}

==Synopsis==
{{More plot|1=Section|2=plot summary (detailed and descriptive, without reintroducing interpretation and editorialising)|date=October 2024}}
The novel tells the story of the young, <!--[[Narcissism|narcissistic]], -->womanizing college athlete, Elmer Gantry, who abandons an early ambition to become a lawyer. <!--The legal profession does not suit the unethical Gantry.{{editorialising|date = October 2024}}
--> After college,{{clarify|date = October 2024}}<!--In re: {{what}} and {{who}}: Plot summaries generally state details from the fictional work.--> he attends a [[Baptists|Baptist]] seminary,{{clarify|date = October 2024}} and is ordained as a minister. He successfully hides sexual involvements that are prohibited,{{clarify|date = October 2024}} 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]]{{clarify|date = October 2024}} who has her own traveling "road church". Gantry becomes her lover, but she and scores of individuals attending one of her meetings<!--NOT "attendants"--> 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,{{clarify|date = October 2024}} and eventually becomes a [[Methodism|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.

Gantry's corruption and power hunger{{clarify|date = October 2024}}<!--Conclusive / synthetic, not descriptive.--> contribute to the downfall, physical injury, and even death of key people around him, including a former associate, Frank Shallard, a sincere minister who questions the moral purpose of his church. Shallard is nearly beaten to death by Gantry loyalists who are angered by perceived "[[Atheism|atheistic]]" divergences from Christian teachings.

Gantry's career comes close to a major scandal when one of his affairs turns out to involve a husband and wife blackmail team. Gantry is helped in avoiding potential downfall by a close friend, and via political alliances with Deacon Eversley, a powerful lawyer; and a private detective agency. A thoroughly repentant Gantry swears to abstain from his sinful proclivities. As the book closes, Gantry notices a younger woman during a closing sermon scene.

==Publication history==
{{expand section | with = important English editions of this work, including reliable post-copyright electronic versions | small = no | date = October 2024}}
* {{cite book | author = Lewis, Sinclair | author-link = Sinclair Lewis | date = March 1927 | title = Elmer Gantry | edition = First | location = New York, NY | publisher = [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt Trade Publishers]] | oclc = 185039547}}{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}

==Reception==
Sinclair's ''Elmer Gantry'' was a commercial success, and was the best-selling work of fiction in America for 1927 (according to [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s|''Publishers Weekly'']]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry |title=80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895 - 1975 |date=1977 |publisher=R.R. Bowker Company |location=New York |isbn=0835209083 |page=103}}</ref> However, on its publication, it created a public furor—it was [[banned in Boston]] and in other cities,<ref>{{cite news | author = NYT Staff | date = April 13, 1927 | title = Boston Bans Sale of 'Elmer Gantry' | work = [[The New York Times]] | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/04/13/97229735.html?pageNumber=16 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | quote = [Subtitle] Will Prosecute Any Who Sell Lewis Novel Under Law Against 'Indecent and Obscene' Books. Ten More Under Scrutiny. Publishers Will Hand to District Attorney Today 57 Works Held as Frank as Lewis's.}}</ref><ref name = AU>{{cite web | author = Boston, Rob | date = September 22, 2014 | title = The Censorship Crusade: A Story For Banned Books Week | work = [[AU.org]] | url = https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-censorship-crusade-a-story-for-banned-books-week | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150713034218/https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-censorship-crusade-a-story-for-banned-books-week | archive-date = 2015-07-13 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Washington, DC | publisher = Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU)}}</ref>{{better source needed|date = October 2024}}<ref>{{cite web | author = Thomas, Ruth | date = 2015-04-24 | title = Research Guides; Boston and Its Neighborhoods; "Banned in Boston": Selected Sources | url = http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/boston/banned/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150424025925/http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/boston/banned/ | archive-date = 2015-04-24 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Boston, MA | publisher = Boston University Libraries and Archives}}</ref> and denounced from pulpits across the United States.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--The AU.com source does not say this (no "denounc$" or "pulpit$"), and only offers the examples fully stated (Billy Sunday, the cleric suggesting a prison sentence).--> Contemporary Sinclair Lewis biographer [[Mark Schorer]] notes that one cleric suggested Lewis be imprisoned for five years; others note that evangelist [[Billy Sunday]] threatened to beat him up and called him "Satan's cohort", and Lewis reportedly received an invitation to his own lynching.<ref name = AU/>{{better source needed|date = October 2024}}

===Criticism===
{{expand section | with = literary critical response, contemporary and modern, relating to this classic work | small = no | date = October 2024}}
Lewis biographer [[Mark Schorer|Schorer]] notes, "The forces of social good and enlightenment as presented in ''Elmer Gantry'' are not strong enough to offer any real resistance to the forces of social evil and banality."{{quote without source|date = October 2024}} Schorer concludes, in view of Lewis' research, that the novel satirically represents the religious activity of America in evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s toward it.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}

==Adaptations==
{{more citations needed section|date = October 2024}}
As of November 2007, there have been five adaptations of the novel:{{update after|2024|10|29}}{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

* A Broadway play by [[Patrick Kearney (playwright)|Patrick Kearney]] opened on August 7, 1928 at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances; the cast included [[Edward Pawley|Edward J. Pawley]] (later of ''[[Big Town]]'' fame) as Elmer Gantry, and Vera Allen as Sister Sharon Falconer.{{according to whom|date=October 2024}}
* [[Film director|Director]]-[[screenwriter]] [[Richard Brooks]]' 1960 ''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' starred, among others, [[Burt Lancaster]] as Gantry, [[Shirley Jones]] as Lulu Bains, and [[Jean Simmons]] as Sister Sharon Falconer,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Weiler|first=A. H.|date=1960-07-08|title=Screen: A Living, Action-Packed 'Elmer Gantry'|page=16|work=[[The New York Times]] | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1960/07/08/archives/screen-a-living-actionpacked-elmer-gantrysinclair-lewis-story.html | access-date = 28 October 2024}}</ref> and won Brooks the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Lancaster and Jones, respectively.<ref>{{cite web|author = AMPAS Staff | date = 29 October 2024 | title = Oscars Ceremonies: The 33rd Academy Awards—1961 | work = [[Oscars.org]] | url = https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1961 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Los Angeles, CA | publisher = Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)}}</ref>
* A 1970 Broadway musical adaptation, titled ''[[Gantry (musical)|Gantry]]'', opened and closed on the same night, February 14, 1970. 
* A 1998 play adaptation by [[Richard Rossi]] was performed in Los Angeles and broadcast on TV October 24, 1998.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}<!--<ref>{{cite web |title=Elmer Gantry |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28775184/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_32_act}}</ref>{{reliable source inline|date = October 2024}} -->
* In November 2007, an opera, also titled ''[[Elmer Gantry (opera)|Elmer Gantry]]'', by Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein, premiered in the James K. Polk Theater in Nashville, Tennessee.<ref name="Green2008-01-20" />

==Related inspired works==
Shortly after the publication of ''Elmer Gantry'', [[H. G. Wells]] published a widely syndicated newspaper article titled "The New American People", in which he largely bases his observations of American culture on Lewis's novels, including ''Elmer Gantry''.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}

After the 1998 play by [[Richard Rossi]], that [[playwright]] was cast in the lead role of Elmer Gantry in a film remake of the 1960 Academy Award-winning [[Elmer Gantry (film)|film of the same name]], slated to be directed by Amin Q. Chaudhri.<ref>{{cite news | author = Herald Staff | date = April 5, 1999 | title = Controversial Clergyman Tapped for a Remake of Film 'Elmer Gantry' | work = [[The Herald (Sharon)|The Herald]] | url = http://www2.sharonherald.com/localnews/recentnews/9904/ln040599a.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160115010923/http://www2.sharonherald.com/localnews/recentnews/9904/ln040599a.html | archive-date = 2016-01-15 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Sharon, PA | publisher = The Sharon Herald Co.}}</ref> Chaudhri sought investors for an initial $20 million budget,<ref>{{cite news | author = Herald Staff | date = April 6, 1999 | title = Chaudhri Seeking Investors to Remake 'Elmer Gantry' | work = [[The Herald (Sharon)|The Herald]] | url = http://www2.sharonherald.com/localnews/recentnews/9904/ln040699c.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141129034517/http://www2.sharonherald.com/localnews/recentnews/9904/ln040699c.html | archive-date = 2014-11-29 | access-date = 29 October 2024 | location = Sharon, PA | publisher = The Sharon Herald Co.}}</ref> but as of this date,{{when|date = October 2024}} a remake has never been made.{{citation needed|date = October 2024}}<!--Our observation as editors that we do not know of a work is not presentable WP evidence; someone must state in a source, on a given date, that no remake has been made.--> Rossi then began writing his own story of an Elmer Gantry-ish evangelist in a contemporary setting, which became the film ''[[Canaan Land]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hill|first1=Tim|title=Televangelists Threaten Controversial New Film 'Canaan Land' That Exposes Charismatic Movement's 'Frauds'|url=http://www.faithnews.cc/?p=22019|accessdate=August 5, 2016|publisher=Faith News Network|date=March 4, 2016}}</ref>

== Citations ==
{{Reflist
| refs =
<ref name="Green2008-01-20">
{{cite news
| last = Green
| first = Jesse
| date = 2008-01-20
| title = Behold! An Operatic Miracle
| newspaper = [[The New York Times]]
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/arts/music/20gree.html
| access-date = 2011-09-12
}}
</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==

===Including audiovisual===
* {{cite web | author = Adams, Noah | date = 2008-02-22 | title = Elmer Gantry, a Flawed Preacher for the Ages | work = NPR.org | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19288767 | access-date=2015-11-13 | location = Washington, DC and Culver City, CA | publisher = National Public Radio}}

===Books===
* Blake, John Tyler. ''Sinclair Lewis's Kansas City Laboratory: The Genesis of Elmer Gantry''. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1999.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Corder, Robert Gibson. ''Edward J. Pawley: Broadway's Elmer Gantry, Radio's Steve Wilson, and Hollywood's Perennial Bad Guy'', Outskirts Press, 2006.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Hutchisson, James M. ''The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920–1930''. University Park: Penn State University Press, 1996.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Lingeman, Richard R. ''Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street'', Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-87351-541-2}}.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* [[Mark Schorer|Schorer, Mark]] ''Sinclair Lewis: An American Life'', 1961, McGraw-Hill. {{OCLC|288825}}.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}

===Chapters and articles===
* Blake, Nelson Manfred. "How to Learn History from Sinclair Lewis and Other Uncommon Sources", in ''American Character and Culture in a Changing World: Some Twentieth-Century Perspectives''. John A. Hague (ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1979. 111–23.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* [[Wheeler Winston Dixon|Dixon, Wheeler]]. "Cinematic Adaptations of the Works of Sinclair Lewis", in ''Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference'', ed. Michael Connaughton. St. Cloud, MN: St. Cloud State University, 1985, pp.&nbsp;191–200. {{OCLC|15935871}}{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Higgs, Robert J. "Religion and Sports: Three Muscular Christians in American Literature", in ''American Sport Culture: The Humanistic Dimensions'' Wiley Lee Umphlett (ed.). Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985, pp.&nbsp;226–34.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Killough, George. "Elmer Gantry, Chaucer's Pardoner, and the Limits of Serious Words", in ''Sinclair Lewis: New Essays in Criticism''. James M. Hutchisson (ed.). Troy, New York: Whitston, 1997. 162–74.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Martin, Edward A. "The Mimic as Artist: Sinclair Lewis", in ''H. L. Mencken and the Debunkers''. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1984. 115–38.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Mayer, Gary H. "Love is More Than the Evening Star: A Semantic Analysis of Elmer Gantry and The Man Who Knew Coolidge", in ''American Bypaths: Essays in Honor of E. Hudson Long''. Ed. Robert G. Collmer and Jack W. Herring. Waco: Baylor University Press, 1980. 145–66.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Moore, James Benedict. "The Sources of Elmer Gantry", in ''The New Republic'', 143 (8 August 1960): 17–18.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Piacentino, Edward J. "Babbittry Southern Style: T. S. Stribling's Unfinished Cathedral". ''Markham Review 10'' (1981): 36–39.
* Prioleau, Elizabeth S. "The Minister and the Seductress in American Fiction: The Adamic Myth Reduz", ''Journal of American Culture'', 16.4 (1993): 1–6.
* [[Mark Schorer|Schorer, Mark]]. "Afterword", in ''Elmer Gantry'' [Sinclair Lewis] Signet Books edition, 1970.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}
* Shillito, Edward. "Elmer Gantry and the Church in America", in ''Nineteenth Century and After'', 101 (1927): 739–48.{{full citation needed|date = October 2024}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=72609|title=Elmer Gantry}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/elmer-gantry}}
* {{FadedPage|id=20181109|name=Elmer Gantry}}
* {{librivox book | title=Elmer Gantry| author=Lewis}}
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q1332957|title=Elmer Gantry}}
* {{TCMDb title|16632|Elmer Gantry}}
* {{AFI film|id=53136|title=Elmer Gantry}}

{{Sinclair Lewis}}

[[Category:1927 American novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:American satirical novels]]
[[Category:Books critical of Christianity]]
[[Category:Censored books]]
[[Category:Harcourt (publisher) books]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Novels by Sinclair Lewis]]
[[Category:Novels set in Missouri]]