As the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1930), Sinclair Lewis holds a unique position in the pantheon of literary greats. Though he began his career as a reporter, he eventually turned to fiction. Main Street and Babbitt brought him significant recognition (1920 and 1922, respectively) but Lewis refused the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith in 1925. Elmer Gantry (1927) is regarded as Lewis' finest work. In all, Lewis wrote nearly two dozen novels and three plays.