The spirit of protest was especially strong in serious American writing
during the 1920s. Many of the greatest writers of this period hated the new business culture.
One such writer was Sinclair Lewis. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Lewis wrote about Americans living in the towns and villages in the central part of the United States. Many of the people in his books were foolish men and women with empty values. They chased after money and popularity. In his famous book Main Street, Lewis joked about and criticized small-town business owners.