The Man Who Knew Coolidge
First edition cover, without jacket, 1928.
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| Author | Sinclair Lewis |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace & Company |
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Publication date
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April 5, 1928 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 275 |
| Preceded by | Elmer Gantry |
| Followed by | Dodsworth |
The Man Who Knew Coolidge is a 1928 satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis. It features the return of several characters from Lewis' previous works, including George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Additionally, it sees a return to the familiar territory of Lewis' fictional American city of Zenith, in the state of Winnemac. Presented as six long, uninterrupted monologues by Lowell Schmalz, a travelling salesman in office supplies, the eponymous first section was originally published in The American Mercury in 1927.
The Man Who Knew Coolidge (subtitled "Being the Soul of Lowell Schmaltz, Constructive and Nordic Citizen") is recounted in a series of six long, uninterrupted monologues by the sub-titular Schmalz. As the reader progresses through each, Schmalz gradually reveals additional details about his background, circumstances, and character. Intended by Lewis as a light intermission between the more substantial Elmer Gantry and his 1929 novel, Dodsworth, The Man Who Knew Coolidge is written in a lighter and more humorous vein than Lewis' best-remembered novels of the 1920s.
While travelling in a Pullman coach, Lowell Schmaltz takes advantage of a lull in conversation with a group of gentlemen to tell a tale. Schmaltz recounts by long and elliptical digressions how he came to know the then-President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. He describes a visit to the White House, undertaken to look in on "Cal". Early in the narrative, Schmaltz's character acknowledges what will be a key characteristic of the remaining five sections of the novel when he states: "I'm afraid I'm getting a little off the subject of Coolidge, and if there's anything I hate it's a fellow that if he starts to talk about a subject he can't stick to it" (p. 17).
Schmaltz recounts his youth in Fall River, Massachusetts, where his father, according to his narrative, was "the leading corn and feed merchant in all his section of Fall River." Unfortunately for Schmaltz, his father "invested his savings in a perpetual motion machine company that had little or no value. He died, and it was quite sudden, in December of my Freshman year, so I had to go back home and take up the burden of helping support the family (p. 22)." The claim regarding the date of his father's death and Schmaltz's departure from college is contradicted later in the book.
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