{"product_id":"9780809321391","title":"If I Were Boss: The Early Business Stories of Sinclair Lewis","description":"\u003cp\u003eAnthony Di Renzo makes available for the first time since their original publication some eighty years ago a collection of fifteen of Sinclair Lewis’s early business stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmong Lewis’s funniest satires, these stories introduce the characters, themes, and techniques that would evolve into \u003ci\u003eBabbitt. \u003c\/i\u003eEach selection reflects the commercial culture of Lewis’s day, particularly Reason Why advertising, self-help manuals, and the business fiction of the \u003ci\u003eSaturday Evening Post. \u003c\/i\u003eThe stories were published between October 1915 and May 1921 (nine in the \u003ci\u003eSaturday Evening Post, \u003c\/i\u003efour in \u003ci\u003eMetropolitan Magazine, \u003c\/i\u003eone in \u003ci\u003eHarper’s Magazine, \u003c\/i\u003eand one in \u003ci\u003eAmerican Magazine).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause some things have not changed in the American workplace since Lewis’s day, these highly entertaining and unflinchingly accurate office satires will appeal to the fans of \u003ci\u003eDilbert \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Drew Carey Show. \u003c\/i\u003eIn a sense, they provide lay readers with an archaeology of white-collar angst and regimentation. The horror and absurdities of contemporary corporate downsizing already existed in the office of the Progressive Era. For an audience contemplating the death of the American middle class, Lewis’s stories provide an important retrospective on earlier times and a preliminary autopsy on the American dream.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAppearing just in time to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of \u003ci\u003eBabbitt, \u003c\/i\u003ethis collection rescues Lewis’s best early short fiction from obscurity, provides extensive information about his formative years in advertising and public relations, and analyzes both his genius for marketing and his carefully cultivated persona as the Great Salesman of American letters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Southern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47021420445936,"sku":"9780809321391","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780809321391_p0.jpg?v=1763728258","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780809321391","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}