Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
In 1926, Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith, but he refused it because he didn't like the way the award made a competition out of art. Or maybe he was just bitter about losing the award twice, in 1921 (for Main Street) and 1923 (for Babbitt). (Source)
In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first American writer ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Take that, Ernest Hemingway. (Source)
Sinclair Lewis was born in Minnesota, which he called "The most Scandinavian part of America," in 1885. (Source)