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Elmer Gantry is a 1927 American satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis that satirizes religious activity in evangelistic circles and public attitudes toward such activity during the 1920s. The novel centers on Elmer Gantry, an ambitious, corrupt minister who rises to prominence in the Methodist Church despite his hypocrisy, sexual misconduct, and opportunism.
Lewis researched the novel in 1926 with the assistance of the Unitarian minister Leon Milton Birkhead, a former Methodist whose knowledge of American religious life helped shape the work.[1][2][3]
Elmer Gantry was published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927 and dedicated to H. L. Mencken. The novel was a commercial success and the best-selling work of fiction in the United States in 1927, but it also provoked widespread public controversy, being banned in Boston and other cities and drawing strong criticism from religious figures.[4][5] The novel has been adapted for the stage, film, musical theatre, and opera.
