Elmer Gantry

Blurb

Elmer Gantry is a novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that satirically represents aspects of the religious activity of America within fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. This ferocious satire by Lewis deals with fanatical religiosity and hypocrisy in the United States during the 1920s by presenting a preacher who starts by preferring booze, easy money and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.
Elmer Gantry was first published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927 and was dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken.