Wells Lewis Plans Political Career; Denies First Novel Is Autobiography

To follow an illustrious father is to set out with two strikes against you, but Wells Lewis '39, son of Nobel prize-winner Sinclair Lewis, has taken a lusty swing with the recent publication of his first novel, "They Still Say No."

The lanky Lowell House History concentrator is not, however, planning a purely literary career. In an interview yesterday he revealed that he wants to get into politics, if possible, via the ballot box.

Non-committal as to his present political inclinations, Lewis said, "Too many people discuss politics who don't know what they're talking about. But I do like LaGuardia's Fusion Party administration in New York."

Plans to Ramble

First, though, Lewis plans for two or three years after graduation to ramble around the country, learning about America, preferably by holding down newspaper jobs in several different localities.

Although the here of "They Still Say No" lives in Lowell House and himself has political aspirations, Lewis denies that the novel is "even as autobiographical as most first novels."

Burton Rascoe of Newsweek recently described Lewis' book as "a study of adolescence and the tragicomic effort of a fine and sensitive youngster to escape from his virginity."

Lewis' own idea about the sex life of the Harvard undergraduate is that too often he sets out in quest of amorous adventures according "to some preconceived hard-and-fast theory, too frequently grounded on the exaggerations and distortions of other undergraduates boasting in bull sessions."

"Necessarily," he continued, "I had to paint the picture through individual characters and scenes; but I tried to make the problems as broadly applicable as possible."