Sinclair was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. He developed an international reputation in the 1920s for his satirical portrayal of middle-class life in Midwestern small towns and cities in such novels as Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, and Dodsworth. Other than Elmer Gantry, his further novels were not as critically acclaimed. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which he declined.