Widely considered one of Sinclair Lewis' finest novels, Arrowsmith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Lewis, however, refused the award, commenting "All prizes are dangerous" (despite his later acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature). The book follows Martin Arrowsmith from his small American town to his place at the pinnacle of the scientific community. A progressive thinker, Dr. Arrowsmith takes issue with the state of American medicine in the 1920s. He makes several important discoveries and suffers great personal loss, all while trying to engage in discussions around medical ethics that are still relevant today.