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The Trail of the Hawk

Sinclair Lewis

Book Overview: 

Trail of the Hawk, is Sinclair Lewis’ second novel published under his own name. It was not at the time of release a smashing success as his later works, Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, and others, but his style and immense talent are certainly evident.

We travel with The Hawk, or Carl Ericson, son of Norwegian immigrants, born at the end of the 19th century through the first three adventurous periods of the young man’s life. We see him as an adventurous boy, running away with Gertie Cowels, the girl that lives in the big house in the better part of town, only to be rescued by Bone Stillman, a backwoods philosopher and influence on Carl.

We travel with him as he leaves his childhood, Gertie and Joralemon behind, for a short attempt at higher education, then to pursue the hobo life, a Bowery bartender, an engineer in Panama and an aviator. It is during the aviator phase that he becomes Hawk Ericson barnstorming his way across America, an exciting but dangerous lifestyle. Leaving aviation after too many close calls, and the loss of his best friend, he becomes an automobile man, and moves into phase three.

It is in phase three, love adventure, that we find The Hawk in New York, mingling with polite society quite by accident. He is smitten by Ruth Winslow, while riding on a streetcar after a fight with Gertie, and follows Ruth to a party which he crashes.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Gertie, because he had, in freshman year, exhausted all the things one can say about the weather without being profane. When, in October, a new bank clerk stormed, meteor-like, the Joralemon social horizon, and became devoted to Gertie, as faithfully reported in letters from Joe Jordan, Carl was melancholy over the loss of a comrade. But he strictly confined his mourning to leisure hours—and with books, football, and chores for the banker, he was a busy young man.... After about ten days it was a relief not to have to plan letters to Gertie. The emotions that should have gone to her Carl devoted to Professor Frazer's new course in modern drama.

This course was officially announced as a study of Bernard Shaw, Ibsen, Strindberg, Pinero, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Maeterlinck, D'Annunzio, and Rostand; but unofficially announced by Professor Frazer as an attempt to follow the spirit of to-day wherever it should be found in contemporary literature. Carl and the Turk . . . Read More

Community Reviews

An exploration of the early days of flying. What an eye opener. Again, Lewis's writing is as good as anyone who ever put pen to page.

Extremely episodic, as any life might be (though this one more so that most), there were times when I thought this book a masterpiece, and others when I wondered if it was ever going anywhere. But Lewis has a way of drawing one in and, even in its most mundane sections, this book is always compellin

This is the second novel I've read the 1930 American winner of Nobel Prize of literature Sinclair Lewis. I definitely enjoyed reading this book much more than the novel "Our Mr. Wrenn". I've read an ebook version of this title. It is written in the beginning of the novel that the book is a critic of

Another enjoyable read by Sinclair Lewis. He had such a distinctive writing style that make his books very identifiable. This story follows Carl Ericson, a bit of a miscontent, who is expelled from college and becomes somewhat of a vagabond going from job to job until he comes across the idea of bec

Was really good. It was not what I expected, but in a good way.

Early novel by Lewis that tells the story of young man during the first thirty years of his life, including his limited time as an early aviator.

Love me some Sinclair Lewis ... he has become my favorite author.

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