. >> you said that the sinclair lewis wrote our town. i think your referring to main street. >> can't hear you this works for heaven sake. >> and fort and wilder of course, wrote our town. >> this chairwoman can't a foolish mistake my saying that sinclair lewis wrote our town. of course, he wrote mainstreet. >> okay. >> now for the question. >> absolutely it's. >> did you watch boardwalk empire by any chance. >> no. >> well, my question was how realistic do you think it was, you don't know. >> i have no idea i'm sorry. >> all right. i have a question. i think i read somewhere not too long ago that it may have been 1920, although maybe 1920, although maybe it was not exactly that year but in the midst of all the turmoil i think you had one of the largest if not the largest demonstration actually down 's on the mall today are at that time. is that correct, or was that a slightly different year? there were so many convening things. veterans and anger about the war prohibition all these things. does that come out too much. >> to the best of

>> what was the meaning of sinclair lewis's life? well he was a lot funnier writer than people give him credit for. if you read main street i think you will see that story about carole kenecott and her discomfort in gopher prairie, minnesota. sinclair lewis was the great american writer. i read him in junior high school. i read doddsworth and i read babbitt. he was a satirist so they didn't care for him in minnesota. he lived uncomfortably in st. paul for brief periods of time. he had a lot of personal troubles. but his view of small town america was so colored by his own experience. he grew up a doctor's son in minnesota and he was ungainly, he was not physically well coordinated and he suffered very bad facial complexion as a result of smallpox scars. so he was an outcast. he was a terrible -- he suffered terribly in his childhood. i did not. i grew up among sanctify brethren and we felt we were the chosen people. we looked down on lutherans as being worldly and loose, and we believed that when the second coming occurred that jesus

and when the first american won the nobel prize it was sinclair lewis but he went around telling everybody willa cather should've should have appeared she was known for massive pieces like my aunt anita, the professor's house it comes to the archbishop, a lost lady, and many others. she's also really important in nebraska lincoln and to her hometown of red cloud nebraska because she went to the university of nebraska lincoln. she wrote about nebraska in many other works including o pioneers, lost lady, one of ours et cetera. and she has been a huge influence upon literature both in the united states and abroad as well come in many well-known writers continue to cite her as one of of the primary influences. she died in 1947 and in 1943 she had made a will which average few restrictions, one of which was she didn't want her letters to be published or to be quoted in whole or in part it says and that was in the same part of the with paragraph seven which didn't want her books adapted into films, plays, et cetera. she wanted to control some degree of people experienced her work and she wanted

he said sinclair lewis wrote our town. i think you are referring to mainstream. >> we can't hear you. use the microphone. >> jordan wilder sinclair lewis wrote our town. now for the question. did you watch boardwalk empire by any chance? my question was how realistic did you think it was? you don't know. >> i have no idea. i am sorry. >> i have a question. i read somewhere not too long ago that it may have been 1920 although it's not exactly that year that in the midst of all this turmoil, and you had one of the largest if not the largest demonstration actually down on the mall to date. i mean, at that time. is that correct or was that a slightly different year? there's so many convening meetings. veterans and anger about the war, prohibition, all these things. does that cannot do much? >> to the best of my knowledge nothing happened in 1920. what was the reason for the demonstration? that was quite a bit later. [inaudible] >> yes, it was. protests didn't occur much bad. interestingly enough, i didn't go into -- i didn't g