Sinclair Lewis 
Elmer Gantry 

Universally recognized as a landmark in American literature, Elmer Gantry scandalized the generation in which it was written, causing Sinclair Lewis to be ‘invited’ to a jail cell in New Hampshire and to his own lynching in Virginia. His portrait of an evangelist who rises to power within his church — a saver of souls who lives a life of hypocrisy, sensuality, and ruthless self-indulgence — has been called the greatest, most vital, and most penetrating study of hypocrisy that has been written since Voltaire.